The 'me' generation produced Paris. The self-absorbed narcissistic generation of adults who lack the integrity to make any sort of sacrifice on behalf of the greater good, has birthed this child that is so desperate for attention, who has made a fine art of cultivating negative press. It wouldn't be a stretch to conclude that her machinations, are just a desperate plea, begging for someone to stop her before she kills herself because her parents have obviously refused to.
Any set of parents who has produced a kid who is this out of control, self-destructive and seriously pathetic, obviously set no boundaries nor were they willing to assert their parental obligations by punishing her for the transgressions that led her to be the person she is today. No child or adult wants to feel that there are no boundaries that they can't cross -- that's scary. Or feel that no one has set an example for them to follow or advanced a system of values in which they could guide their behavior.
I don't think anyone is going to disagree that Paris is a mess and a very bad influence on our society, especially young impressionable women. But it pays to keep in mind that she's a product of parental neglect and our collective appetites.
The argument that she should be held in special contempt because she has no demonstrable talent, is just plain retarded, as that reasoning implies that if she had any talent, her behavior might be more acceptable and we would feel less inclined to see her punished. An argument that makes no sense.
The press has made millions on the Paris traveling freak-show act as the millions who knew it was wrong, watched obsessively without protest, rubbernecking through the whole ride, getting mileage out of their feelings of superiority. Hypocrites.
Sarah Silverman set a new low, if that's even possible for ,when she went into a viscous public indictment of Paris at, I believe, the MTV awards in which the camera locked on to those in the audience, catching Paris's embarrassed reactions and that of others in the audience. One in particular being Jack Nicholson, a man who has spent his entire life exploiting half-broken and vulnerable women, if we are to believe what has been written.
His hearty, heartfelt laughter, spilled out of him like like a flood from a poisoned well. Yes, I enjoy him as an actor also, that talent says nothing about just what kind of a human being he is.
Silverman's herself panders to a following that consists, almost exclusively, of young men who have been emotionally wiped-out by an excessive amount of porn. A generation of men who have been abandoned by their fathers and brainwashed by a culture that advances a 'girls gone wild' ethos at every turn, nook and cranny. Silverman is just another cog in the wheel of this cultural exploitation. To argue that she is somehow immune to contempt because she has 'talent' would be a hard argument to make as she neither has talent nor does she deserve immunity as she is guilty of far worse than Paris is.
For anyone who has eyes to see, Paris is slowly killing herself before our eyes and while she is a bad influence on the young women she associates with and our culture at-large, she is highly representative of her self-destructive alienated generation who no one is making the slightest effort to help save. Silverman is just one more in a long chorus of women, who are eager to jump in and savage one of theirs because she has a nose for blood and is willing to advance her favor among frat boys even if it means standing on the corpse of Paris to do it.
Imposing a jail sentence on Paris for breaking the law once too many times is a good idea, one would hope it might leave a lasting impression on her.
Whether or not she is forced to serve her full sentence may be moot at this point.
I seriously doubt if she'll try testing the system again.
Rather than continue the litany of endictments, let's hope that she can take the considerable influence she has over our culture, and use it for the better.
People far worse have managed that miracle.