'Grandiose' is a word that comes to my mind often these days.
I love watching American Idol! And, just like in everything else, although there are so many extremely talented people, there are also some with little talent. That would be fine...except that most of those with little talent seem to have grandiose views of themselves so they end up looking a little silly.
As I look around, I see the same trend happening across all walks of life and I wonder what has caused our egos to inflate so. History has had its share of grandiose people (Hitler springs to mind) and has shown us that it's a very dangerous path to go down. I sometimes get a niggling feeling that we need to arrest this trend of sending hoards of our youth to the Grandiosphere if we want to help create a kinder, gentler world.
Having confidence in something you do well is great. But grandiosity isn't appealing even when you have the talent to back it up. People don't seem to grandiose well so perhaps we should step down our self-importance a notch and leave grandiose to nature.
People don't do grandiose well
so let's leave it to nature.
I don't watch American or the British Idol programmes. Not that I don't think there is no talent, There is but I cannot bear watching the "grandiose"performances of the judges. But on another level as someone who has been in theatre for a long time and has had to audition people for musical theatre then I do see the point of what you are saying only too well and as Musical director having to teach young singers to perform on stage I have crossed a few "divas"in my time. My saying is that people have more confidence than ability and I think that's exactly what you are also saying Rhia because a loy of the problem stems from "pushy parenting ".Encouragement is one thing but do it from A sensible position .
ReplyDeleteThat's absolutely it; being a diva is annoying but if you have the skill to back it up then you can get away with it. But this grandiose behavior that we see in many places today is a bit of a worry.
DeleteI've watched American Idol here and there but never really stuck to it. I got hooked on The Voice, although this current season they are trying to look for the 'better, more unique' people, which is a bit off the mark from last season, and the reason why I started watching in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI feel even though they aren't up at the level as the better & unique ones, that they all deserve a chance, so I'm a little disappointed at the fact they are looking for the better more experienced (even if they don't say it) people. I still enjoy the show though. There are a lot of talented people that are discovered.
But you are right, there are way too many people full of themselves, where they don't have any reason to be. I also agree with your anonymous poster, that it does start in the homes of the kids, they are molded by the environment they are in, and some parents can be really push to the point that the kids aren't enjoying what they do, but just trying to make their parents happy, and that is truly a sad thing to see happen.
What happened to 'Just Have Fun'?!
Oh what a great question...what did happen to having fun? It seems that many children today can't join the choir (or anything else) for fun...but so that they can make a career out of it. It doesn't make much sense, does it.
DeleteI see it in other venues as well. New writers get frustrated because an editor dares to edit their precious words, or they become outraged when they submit one piece and it doesn't get accepted. I'm sure it's true elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right, Donna. As a teacher, I experience it a lot in the area of writing when grading students' assignments...it's almost as though it's a travesty to suggest that something isn't perfect.
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