Strawberry Fields forever?Today marks the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's murder. I'm not going to name the little turd responsible because he doesn't deserve any recognition.
He killed Lennon so that their names would be permanently linked. In an age when celebrity must be attained at any cost, he stood on another person's shoulders to put his own worthless name in the history books.
I should point out that I'm not a huge Lennon fan. I like his music and I think he had a vision of the world which would be nice to make real. But that's about it. What irks me today is the way we seem willing to blur the lines between infamy, celebrity and ability. These days we don't care *why* someone is well-known; we'll beat a path to their door for the slenderest of reasons.
And that just encourages them.
Personally I think the best kind of punishment for anyone willing to kill simply for fame is to forget them. Ideally I'd love to erase them utterly from any recorded history thus depriving them not only of the fame they crave but also any trace of ever having existed. Yes, I know it sounds a bit Stalinesque and would be impossible to accomplish but it certainly seems like a fitting punishment.
Meanwhile tonight some idiots over at Channel 4 will be airing an interview with the aforementioned turd. Quite rightly Lennon's family have objected on the ground that it glorifies a killer. Channel 4's only defence is that no money changed hands for the interview.
Wake up people - he doesn't care about being paid money. You're paying him attention which is exactly what he wants.
He wins and we helped him win.
posted at 12:33 PM
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