Here’s today’s COMMENT FROM AN OLD FART: Michael, Jr. the comic was doing a show at a prison. One of his jokes to the prisoners went like this: you have have two choices. Choice A is doing the right thing which might not be fun. Choice B is doing the fun thing which will have consequences and you might have to explain later. That brings this comment to Chelsea Handler, self-acknowledged skank who has gone on to a measure of notoriety with monetary benefits. These are the facts as posted in Chelsea Handler explains food poisoning lie:
Comedienne Chelsea Handler lied about having food poisoning to get out of a live TV appearance after walking into a shower door and injuring her eye.
Handler was due to be interviewed on the “Today” show on Monday morning, but she pulled out at the last minute and the show’s hosts were told she had been struck down with illness.
However, Handler made a miraculous ‘recovery’ to appear at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in the evening, as well as taping an interview on “Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night” talk show that day, and she was forced to admit the
food poisoning story wasn’t true.She tells Fallon, “That was a lie. I wasn’t sick. … No no, I wasn’t drunk or anything. I am very injury prone. … I have bruises. … I literally walked into a shower door this morning. I hit my eye and so everything’s puffy and … I just couldn’t go … I hit myself (with the shower door) and I just didn’t want to go and be on a morning talk show … And I apologize. It’s not fun to book somebody and have a guest not show up.” http://blog.seattlepi.com/people/2012/11/14/chelsea-handler-explains-food-poisoning-lie/
There isn’t a question about whether Handler lied, she freely admits it.
For a good discussion of the ethics of lying, consult the BBC article, Lying and truth-telling:
Nobody who writes about lying nowadays can do so without acknowledging an enormous debt to this groundbreaking book: Lying: Moral choice in public and private life, by Sisela Bok, 1978.
What is a lie?
Lying is a form of deception, but not all forms of deception are lies.
Lying is giving some information while believing it to be untrue, intending to deceive by doing so.
A lie has three essential features:
- A lie communicates some information
- The liar intends to deceive or mislead
- The liar believes that what they are ‘saying’ is not true
There are some features that people think are part of lying but aren’t actually necessary:
- A lie does not have to give false information
- A lies does not have to be told with a bad (malicious) intention – white lies are an example of lies told with a good intention
This definition says that what makes a lie a lie is that the liar intends to deceive (or at least to mislead) the person they are lying to. It says nothing about whether the information given is true or false.
This definition covers ordinary cases of lying and these two odd cases as well:
- the case where someone inadvertently gives true information while believing that they’re telling a lie
- I want the last helping of pie for myself, so I lie to you that there is a worm in it. When I later eat that piece of pie I discover that there really is a worm in it
- the case where nobody is deceived by me because they know that I always tell lies
Lying and statements
Some philosophers believe that lying requires a statement of some sort; they say that the liar must actually speak or write or gesture.
Sisella Bok, author of a major philosophical book on the subject of lying, defines a lie as:
an intentionally deceptive message in the form of a statement http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/lying/lying_1.shtml
The essential question in the Handler situation is should society lionize the intentionally bad behavior of those in the public eye?
The first question readers might ask is, can anyone married to Ozzy Osborne and having their own reality show spout the truth? The answer on the cult of celebrity, yes. Sharon Osborne is right that the cult of celebrity detracts from honoring true heroes and destroys any attempt to instill positive values in children. We have a whole generation of young women who are intelligent and could have wonderful careers and families who now aspire to be nothing more than highly paid sluts and whores. More about that later. In Sharon Osbourne: The dark side of fame…and why the cult of celebrity is destroying today’s children Sharon says:
How depressing that the loftiest ambition a child of 14 can summon up is to have breasts the size of barrage balloons. It was bad enough that she regarded ‘being famous’ as a worthy goal – not ‘being talented’, you note.
When Ozzy was starting out as a musician in Black Sabbath, for him and his contemporaries fame was simply a by-product of doing something they loved, not an end in itself. Of course, they wanted to be successful and to make money, but they certainly didn’t expect it and that wasn’t the reason they were in a band.
Today, though, young people regard fame as a birthright. They have a sense of entitlement the size of one of my houses.
I recently heard about the work of an American psychologist who discovered that in the Fifties only 12 per cent of youngsters agreed with the statement, ‘I am an important person’. By the end of the Eighties, that figure had risen to 80 per cent. I think we can all guess what it is now.
Children leaving school today no longer want to be doctors or lawyers or architects. All I ever hear is ‘I wanna be famous’, or ‘ I wanna be a celeb’.
There is an epidemic of fame-obsessed youngsters – aged between ten and 25 – who wrongly believe celebrity is a shortcut to wealth and happiness, and who are convinced it will bring them everything they want. An entire generation that doesn’t understand that nothing worth having comes easily.
I’m not a politician – and that’s politics’ loss – but it seems obvious to me that many teenagers part company with the schools system with little or no actual education.
And because the traditional family unit has more or less collapsed, these children probably haven’t been brought up with any real values. We used to call them latch-key kids. How many people do you honestly know who sit down together and have a family dinner every night?
You preach, sister!
Survival values are positive values and Denise Witmer’s summary of Teaching Positive Morals and Values -Why It Is Important? describes some positive values:
Values are the desirable principles in someone’s character that society considers worthwhile. Friendliness and courage are values. Morals work with the judgment of values as they emerge in actions. ..
- are successful in their relationships with other people. They know how to treat another person with respect and know how to earn respect from other people. They are the type of people who you find you want to be friends with.
- contribute positively to society by reaching beyond themselves out into their community. They get involved and help where they can.
- take responsibility for their actions. They try to fix any mistakes they make. They are capable of feeling a sense of accomplishment when they finish a task. People who do not have base values aren’t even able to feel good about doing something right.
- are capable of learning and growing both socially and emotionally.
- are generally happier. They grab on to the best of what life has to offer them. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel when life gets tough.
Success in life is picked up in bits and pieces along our journey.
As a society, we are either not transmitting good values and/or not rewarding those who display good values and really are the heroes who make this world a better place to live. Probably the answer is yes on both counts. Meanwhile the Handlers of this world are manhandling basic decency and responsibility. No matter as she skates along, the morons who support her sleazy slide are lubricating her glide path with plenty of mammon
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