One Year Later

The sheen which developed on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico is nothing compared to the one Charlie Sheen, recent activist for mental illness, has managed to create for himself lately. Obviously the timing is off. Charlie Sheen is already in BP Oil Spill Month 5 mode, when people just sort of shrugged and the damage control had shut everyone up about talking about anything. The two situations are similar in this way.

Charlie Sheen has spilled all over pop culture while his true problems lurked under the surface of the water, disrupted by dispersants, and this has gone on for years. Then suddenly we see the pathological outbreak in a series of almost unbelievable news stories – crashed cars, threatened ex wives, domestic allegations, alleged use of substances – and it is capitalized on.

With BP and other corporate hijackers of democracy and ecology, we see the pathological behavior and wait until the moment of infamy, and then let them get away with it (since we are disenfranchised, our outrage counts for nothing anyway). One year later and the outcry is buried in new outcries. No anti-worldrapists got offended when plutocracy and capitalism eroded another massive chunk of the world. Not even Charlie had it so easy.

If only an oil spill were as profitable and easy to manage as a fame spill.