Stephen King, the WGA, and Politics

I guess if I had ever thought about it, I should have known Stephen King had his own blog. Of course, had I ever thought of it, I wouldn't have expected it to exist on his own site; I mean, it's Stephen King - you know? If you were the best-selling author of all-time, then you probably wouldn't maintain a personal blog for free, either.

So I found his blog (or one of them - whatever) earlier through Yahoo! and the article is quite interesting. He draws a connection between the WGA and celebrity endorsements of Presidential hopefuls and a seeming interest in the elections amongst the general American population.

And while his point is more than valid - insightful, if a tad trite (especially since I have been complaining of this very thing for years now over to The Rundown) - I have to wonder if King thought about the fact that he is actually using his celebrity to knock the pull of celebrity? Along those lines, I started wondering if there even is any other way...

I mean, when a George Clooney or Stephen King knocks an Oprah Winfrey for getting involved in politics, they are basically getting involved in politics. And while their message may be more down-to-Earth (and certainly more welcome), is there any real difference in what they are doing? Of course, without such celebrity, there is no real platform; it isn't just that we pay more attention to a Name like Stephen King or George Clooney, it's also that a no-name like me simply cannot get my message out there. It's a bit of a catch-22, obviously, but there it is.

Still, if the overt commercialization of politics is the only way to attract attention and ensure interest and voter turn-out, then maybe it is just what needs to be done. As King points out, the younger generation - for all their (many) faults - are definitely savvier when it comes to advertising than we were at their age. They're hipper to it than many of us are even today!

Scary, sure - but maybe it's just the natural evolution of selling-out everything. And what's more American than that?

© C Harris Lynn, 2008