ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??????

In the spotlight, losing our religion

I've mentioned before the Steve Allen (yes, that Steve Allen!) story "The Public Hating."  You can have your "Handmaid's Tale" (or The Handmaid's Tale) and even your 1984.  For my money, Allen's tale was far more prescient and insightful.

All of them, and anybody who quits the Trump administration, should go to a cabin far in the remote mountains of Alaska and spiritually decontaminate for at least a year before they’re allowed to cash in on their opportunistic allegiance with this White House, before they’re allowed to make nice with the side of the aisle they disparaged. A little quarantine for the soul. They should have to wait 18 months before they write a book and promote it on shows hosted by the journalists they’ve trashed and maligned. They should have to serve penance in the name of the people they’ve wronged. Otherwise, what’s to dissuade anybody else from doing the same thing? Evil-based opportunism should not be this lucrative.

Rarely has a man who is in the news for something that has nothing to do with his penis provided as much late-night comedy fodder as Sean Spicer. During his tenure as White House Press Secretary, his pioneering combination of whining and lying was irresistible to hosts and audiences alike. That he was doing these things on behalf of Donald Trump, perhaps the most disliked man in the liberal bastion of Hollywood, only made him more contemptible.

But last night, less than two months after he stopped serving as the mouthpiece for President Trump, Spicer was welcomed into the joke, onstage at the Emmys on a rolling podium styled after the one Melissa McCarthy used to play him in her Saturday Night Live sendup. The gathered celebrities whooped and cheered. After the ceremony, Spicer yukked it up at the Governor’s Ball. He was mobbed by celebrities who wanted selfies with him; even those who have sold their soul can’t resist the appeal of the celebrity selfie.

If we can't hate Sean Spicer on a stage in a stadium until he begins to run around like a bug on a hot griddle, what's the point of a justice system?  Punishment is demanded, and we expect payment in the coin of celebrity (which is the only currency that matters!)!  We can tolerate the Kardashians and Jessica Simpson (she has a line of shoes now!) for being famous for being famous, and even Caitlin Jenner despite the fact she still supports Trump despite everything, but allowing Sean Spicer to go on stage at the Emmy's and dare to try to be entertaining?!  To even hint at the SNL skit that made Melissa McCarthy famous in the first place?!  Who does he think he is????!!!????

Even Chris Cillizza says it was "normalizing" Spicer and that isn't funny at all!  I mean, if even Chris Cilizza says it, it must be the accepted wisdom du jour.  Because, to prove the point of Donald Trump being our first Reality TV President, we must by the standards of reality TV and all that is holy to American celebrity, VOTE SEAN SPICER OFF THE ISLAND!!!!!

WHY IS HE STILL ON OUR TEE-VEE?  THAT IS A SACRED SPACE AND HE HAS DESECRATED IT!  THIS SHALL NOT STAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, at least not in certain circles in Hollywood and on The Daily Beast.  I don't know about you, but I don't think the rest of us give a wet snap.  Somehow the man who ran down Heather Hayer; the judge in St. Louis; the people showing up in Raw Story stories claiming they, too, would run down protestors who dared get in the way of their vehicle ("'X' marks the pedwalk"  Another science fiction story, come to think of it....) seem more contemptible to me than Sean Spicer.    Even Donald Trump is more deserving of contempt, especially since he took the oath of office.

April Ryan, CNN White House Correspondent, insists Spicer must seek "redemption" before returning to the space beyond the nave where the commoner sit and gawk, and taking his place again in the chancel, where only the elect may walk.  He is unclean and must make himself holy (heilige, pure, unscathed, as Derrida reminds us) again.  Actually, it's a little funny and a little sad that the space in front of the camera is a holy space that only the worthy may enter (the Kardashians?  Paris Hilton?) and only the spiritual decontaminated are allowed there when the appearance isn't directly connected with their regular employment, lest they infect our souls with their....cooties, I guess.

Is this really what's replacing religion?  Because I think even the avowed atheists can do better.