If you look at ACA's incredibly mishandled attempt to shame him into repentance:
"You need to take a long, hard look at yourself."
"I did. Everyone did. And they love it."
you'll realise that this is way bigger than the generation gap. This is new media vs old media - TV, radio, they just don't know what to do with him. Time was, scoundrels could be rooted out by shows like ACA, and they would run to their cars, hands over their faces. Shamed.
But shame doesn't work on the unshameable. And for a generation of kids who have grown up with Big Brother, notoriety doesn't just resemble fame - it is the same thing exactly. Desirable in every sense.
He's unflinching, unrepentant, neither cowed nor dazzled by the lustre of old media. He walked out of a radio interview after one of the hosts tried to get his famous glasses off. You'll see the same fight in the aisles of supermarkets all over the world, between stubborn toddlers and their exasperated parents. It's the frustration of someone who feels that they're not getting the deference that they deserve, that surely this should be easy - this is just a kid, after all.
But that's exactly why it works. No one but a 15 year old could manage to be this unimpressed by everything. Being unimpressed is the raison d'etre of 15. The people he's supposed to be awed by are irrelevant to him and his mates. I'd love to see him on Dr Phil, he'd probably reduce the old bastard to tears.
There are Facebook groups for and against, and threats have been issued. This isn't what things used to be like, for sure. TV used to have some kind of authority, you know? But they destroyed that when they handed most of their programming content to The People.
It's all fucking entertaining though, like watching the Hindenberg go down, safe in the knowledge that every single person on it is a complete wanker.
8 comments:
Oh. migod.
Before he was an obnoxious wanker I was trying to avoid. I resented the lack of real news that vacuumed him into the spotlight. (How many times has this type of event happened around the country? Shirtloads.) But NOW... well, he's still an obnoxious twat, but I love the media economics - the oldies trying to cram a VHS into the DVD player, poking him into caring about what they care about, or even caring that they're incensed.
You've transformed me. You're my new hero.
Beautifully expressed dear Ninafat.
The MSM dealing with the monster they created.
(his parents of course, are equally moronic - I wonder is it Child Neglect to leave a 16 year old home and go interstate?)
I agree that the media's feeble attempts to crucify corey have been the direct reason for his leap to fame.. but i don't think it's so much the shift in television that has bred kids like corey across the globe as it is the decline of parental authority.
basically parents (and teachers) have lost the right to give disobedient kids a hard whack when they start acting in a cocky or disrespectful manner. it is now seen as abuse. whether this is going to be for better or worse, i suppose time will tell... but i doubt corey or his destructive guests would have carried on like that if parents were still allowed to thump some sense into their kids.
Check out his new website : www.coreyspace.com
Anonymous, I heartily disagree with your comment. Physical violence is the least effective way to gain authority over a child, mainly because it only works when you're within a few metres of them. And it's very limited in terms of the period of time you can use it in (I was taller than my Mum by about age 14).
My family was pretty relaxed, but when it came down to it, my parents had the last say. My Mum used to say, "This isn't a democracy, it's an informed dictatorship." I respected them even when I was busy hating their guts.
When you hit a kid, you're responding to them in the most base and unthinking way - obey me because I'm bigger than you. All this teaches them is that you can go on to do this to other kids, and other adults when they get older. You're not giving them the skills to learn to handle non-violent authority; being subject to it or wielding it.
Maybe the kid in question wouldn't have done what he did if he had parents who had any authority over him. Or maybe he still would have. He is, after all, only 15, and everyone makes mistakes. A parent's job isn't to ensure that their kids never make any.
But I stand by the argument that being hit would not have done him any good at all. Because in my experience, the best way to control the behaviour of a child is to be the kind of person they trust, look up to, and never want to disappoint.
Anonymous, are you trying to be inflammatory?
I don't think you have to hit a child to discipline a child.
Granted, my mum did hit me occasionally, but I think I remember each of the 4 or 5 times she did that, all before I was 10, all on my legs and all when she was at the end of her tether for other ways to get me to understand. But those occasions were not what made me a well behaved person when she was/wasn't there - and I can barely begin to quantify what it was that did that, but I know it was a combination of at least:
understanding the difference bw inappropriate and appropriate behaviour, and the difference bw right, wrong and really wrong (a sense of ethics and values);
not wanting to put my parents through undue grief (compassion and consideration); and
wanting to be proud of myself (self worth).
Smacking alone, or even simply the lack of smacking, does not instil those qualities.
I would even go so far as to say that whether someone does or doesn't, or would, smack their child does not relate to their ability to instil those other qualities. At all.
In other news, Ninafat has graduated to a whole new level of blogdom - you're now the proud owner of a healthy tangent. Aww! Well done!!
Aw, thanks, it's just what I wanted :)
A very insightful post. The media try to keep characterising him as "unrepentant" but I've heard the kid say he's sorry every time someone's poked a mic in his face. You've nailed it – he's simply shameless. Old media can't cope with the paradox of handing him his notoriety and wanting to exploit and criticise it at the same time.
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