A Bitter Sweet success?
Tuesday 08 March 2011
There hardly seems to be a day that goes by at the moment without someone asking me to comment on the latest celebrity emotional car crash.
First, we had Charlie Sheen wide-eyed and ranting on US TV sounding like a deranged evangelist for the narcotics trade, spouting lines (if you’ll pardon the pun) like ‘Can’t is the cancer of happen.’ And ‘the (party) run I was on was epic! It made Sinatra, Flynn, Jagger, Richards, all of them just look like droopy eyed harmless children…’ Wow, someone needs help! Wonder if the phone will ring and cue a trip to LA LA land? I’ll keep you posted if it does.
I did have to laugh the other day; I was in a taxi in Glasgow, and in true Glaswegian style the taxi driver said, ‘Did you see that interview with Mr Sheen the other night?’ ‘Mr. Sheen?’ I replied. 'Aye, it’s no coincidence his name is Charlie but he now prefers "Mr." sheen ‘cause he can polish off anything on a smooth surface!'
I have to confess that while it is tragic, I did laugh out loud just the same…
And then we have the multi millionairess Lindsay Lohan facing jail (again) for ‘allegedly’ stealing a necklace and even our own royalty is showing very questionable morality by associating with a convicted child sex offender… What on earth has happened to the so called ‘great and the good?'
Then, just as I was about to throw my hands in the air, pack up my self help books and head for the pub myself, the answer came… it’s all down to bitter drinks apparently.
New research from the USA (where else?) published in ‘Psychological Science’ has proven categorically that there is a link between bitter drinks and poor moral judgment.
According to the study you are 27% more likely to have consentual sex with your cousin or eat your already dead dog after drinking bitter drinks than you are after drinking sweet drinks… I have no idea what the chance of those polled sleeping with their dead dog or what they would have to be drinking for that matter, but the study did make very interesting reading…
When you think about it, it does make some sense in this context… Sheen (MR), Lohan et al, are no strangers to a spot of bubbly indulgence, which (with the exception of that which is either very good or very bad) is more bitter than it is sweet. And then we have the wayward prince, himself no stranger to bubbly or the other tipple of the upper classes, Gin & Tonic that is of course… bitter.
Now, I’m no killjoy and certainly enjoy a drink like the next guy, (especially if the next guy is buying) but I think it is time to look very carefully at the choices we are ALL making. If I have learned one thing in my years of working in the media is that being in the public eye takes very normal problems and turns them all the way up!
Maybe, therefore, if those in the spotlight are making such glaring clangors we in the wings should have a little look at ourselves, too. How do you make decisions? Do you make them for the greater good? Or for the benefit of others, to the detriment or yourself? Or do you make choices that just give you gratification in the moment but haunt you forever more?
We all make choices, even things that we think ‘just happen’ are the result of choices. Even doing nothing is still a choice!
We are our actions, and our actions are the direct result of our thoughts and choices… All human behavior is the result of the state of mind we are in at the time. Please make sure you are in ‘THE’ right state and not ‘A’ right state…
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