European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 29, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                May 2007 stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 13 opinion the Downside to being enlightened by stars by Theodore Dalrymple the cult of celebrity is not but it is increasing in its scope and at one people wanted simply to Gap at the and possibly dress like Many take their moral and Politi Cal opinions from for exam most Young Peoples View of insofar As they have one at probably derives More from the pronouncements of u2s Lead than from any other source of knowledge about the dark As it Bono has boned up on his even if his conclusions about what should be done to help Africa Are eminently disputable and deeply hypocrite his authority arises from his not from his an equally knowledgeable but otherwise totally obscure person would not be Able to Hector the leaders of Germany and Italy for falling behind on their promises of As Bono did this when Bono they have to listen he is More famous than they Fame confers and the principal Way of acquiring great Fame is via the entertainment in entertainers Are the Popes of our with de Facto though As yet not de Jure Powers to Call Down anathema on or beautify whomever they entertainment is important be cause it is Many peo ple nowadays Are growing up As if it were a Gas in the they walk into the streets and vast plasma screens Flash fast moving images before them their ears Are stopped with ipod at the or some other electronic is on most of the people now grow Unco fort and even if they Are left to their own thoughts for any length of when i was still in medical More than a few patients used to ask me for pills to prevent them from so it is hardly surprising that Many Young in derive their political opinions As much from news presented As com Edy As from More straightforward during the 2000 election the Pew re search Center found that 21 per cent of 18to 19yearolds got their political news and views from the daily show with Jon Stew his Quick witted and laugh minute approach deftly avoids the greatest vice known to youth not to take anything too seriously is the High est form of even if what is being presented is a parti san Point of to say some thing and mean it is a sign that one is not of the exalted company of the of is one of the great resources of the human Intel Lect though it often seems to me perhaps because of my advancing age that satire nowadays often turns out quickly to be but when satire becomes the Domi or Mode of Communia the result is a frivolous Arch Ness that in the end destroys the capacity or willingness for serious As i have celebrity is a source of moral As if it were the Case that no one could be famous who was not celebrities also must be for How could someone have ascended to great Fame without some superiority of mind one of the curious things about modern celeb i is that although they should be glamorous and unapproachable in some they also should be completely banal at the same time that was the great a peal of Princess nothing could illustrate this better than the web site of Rosie the co lesbian activist and recent chief attraction on the who pronounces on so Many subjects and whose utterances appear to be taken seriously by people email her to which she compared with the questions and answers on the the average barfly sounds like do you answer the questions yourself inquired one per she i was re Wjk pfc of floor rot Pon ims Down in by seem use films 3 Liml minded of the examination ques Tion for philosophy students at Oxford is this a question the Stu Dent who if this is an received the highest there is no plumbing the Shal lows of the questions can you just say i to me reply i to this seems to be enough for the questioner to have Felt she was in real Contact with Fame and for heres another How come you do not receive email on the View web site reply cause i am the most or reveal question asked what kind of antidepressant medication do you use that she takes such medication Means that for All her Fame and is just like which is to say full of misery and the per son asking it seems to be asking for a for whatever Odonnell takes must be Good for for the Odonnell is not Only a moral but a medical the cult of celebrity trivializes everything it but then i ask myself was there Ever a time in human history when people judged serious matters by serious criteria if when was and when did it change Theodore Dalrymple is the author of our whats left of it the mandarins and the this column first appeared in the los Angeles history shows hypocrisy of Carter slamming Bush Dan Thomasson Washington of All the criticisms Jimmy Carter  be the Allega Tion about president Bush for eign policy shortcomings tops the he should not need to be reminded that it was his botching of the iranian hostage situation that helped get us where we Are while few would Dis agree about the presi dents failures in Iraq and Afghanistan and his inability to bring key european allies into the Only a Brief glance at history will Tell us where this whole mess but then Carter has been in denial about his role almost since the last vote was cast for Ronald Reagan in leaving him to search for vindication by sticking his nose into every International Cri Sis from Haiti to the Middle East in an ultimately successful Campaign for a Nobel peace the former   Cian can claim credit for winning a detente Between Egypt and Israel that was no Small he also is a Nice Man whose bitterness Over what he Felt was an unfair rejection by voters finally spewed out in his ranking of Bush As the biggest Oval office Bunkhead in history when it comes to Over seas affairs and his slandering of British prime minister Tony Blair As a break ing the Rule about former presidents not speaking ill of the current Holder of the when Carter left office his ratings were As Low or lower than dipping into the 20s for Job approval on a series of Domestic and foreign policy blunders that left prestige abroad in a shambles and turned Iran into a theocratic state that Fosters and finances his misguided stances included cancelling participation in the Moscow olympics because of the soviet in Vasion of a silly protest that accomplished nothing and Hurt Only the Ameri can athletes who had trained for but the of came when he withdrew support for the ailing Shah of a pro american Monarch who had kept Radical muslims in line and provided stability throughout the this sometimes required what Carter saw As repressive measures by the Shah secret so what does this born again georgian do he helps unleash one of the most regressive radicals in modern the Ayatollah on Iran and the the secret police were amateurs com pared to the oppressive Ness this creature brought with him from exile in the whose religious ideology was right out of the Lith then warned his Benefactor not to permit the dispossessed Shah to get medical treatment in the United that was too much even for who ignored the the Ayatollah then gave his Young militants the godhead to storm the american holding 52 hostages and making the a laughing Stock for More than 444 Days while Carter afraid of the consequences of Mili tary he finally okd an improbable Rescue plan but quickly abandoned it when a Heli copter killing nine of the the nations wimp and was the new persian dictators turn their attention to promoting anti Ameri can ism throughout the Globe and establish ing a rogue state about to reach critical mass with its nuclear at the same time they have not to feed the insurgency in Iraq with financing and Roadside Carter seemed to Retreat a bit in Normal political fashion after his remarks caused the White House to bite calling him irrelevant under the seems albeit he said he was speaking in a context that was Misander he has been openly critical of Bush in the past without eliciting a response from the White taken the mistakes in Middle East policy would fill but who cultivates an image of fairness and in should understand better than any one that our current problems have been a Long time in the dating Back to his own bad it probably is time for him to restrict himself to pounding nails in houses for the Dan Thomasson is former editor of Scripps Howard news prickly City by Scott Stantis