Appearances

Here's a fact: shooting guns is fun. Just ask most of the celebrities who earnestly pled with Americans to push for gun control in a recently released video titled Demand A Plan To End Gun Violence. Truth is, the only time guns aren't fun is when they're being used to take lives. Unfortunately they've been used to take a lot of lives in this country lately. A lot of lives. This blog is not about the gun control argument, however. Nor is it about the horror that befell Newtown last month.

It's about appearances.

For another video has emerged, one titled Demand A Plan? Demand Celebrities Go F*ck Themselves. This particular piece is more or less the same as the original Demand video, except it adds clips of many of those same celebrities firing guns themselves in films and on television programs. It's a biting bit of work...and it makes the stars in question look stupid, disingenuous, or both. 

Although I appreciate the second video as a work of social commentary, I think most of the stars in the original video had sincere intentions. Thing is, these celebrities appeared to be prim and bloated with self importance. Perhaps if they had actually brought up  the fact that they employ guns in their own line of work, things would have come across differently. Unfortunately, they didn't. 

As it stands, the underlying message of Demand A Plan seems to be: we can use guns. You can't. We're celebrities. I doubt that was the desired effect for anyone involved.

The bottom line is we all have to be mindful of how we come across. Our intentions may be fantastic. Our ideas may be brilliant. But if we look bad while communicating those ideas, everything is for naught. In a sense, the celebrities in the Demand video are no different than we are. They sometimes act before they consider the consequences. Unlike those celebrities, though, most of us won't be mocked for our screw ups on YouTube. 

Who says big stars have it all?