Today, while eating lunch, I’ve been thinking about this whole Tiger Woods bru-ha-ha and why we care so much. Again, I think our reaction to this incident is more telling about how our society has gone wrong of late, and that is of more concern than anything Tiger did.
As background: Tiger Woods ran his car (which wasn’t a Buick, but no one has commented on that) into a tree. The local sheriff found him legally liable for that, and has fined him. But the media believes it was due to an affair, and Tiger issued a statement that said “I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.” He views the details as a private matter to be worked out with his family.
Everyone is now upset, because their hero isn’t perfect. But why do we care? Our sports celebrities and media celebrities didn’t grow up perfect — no one does. Why do we expect them to lead perfect lives that have no issues or faults. We certainly don’t. Why should they? More importantly, why should we care?
Many of us have made a big deal over gay marriage, stating that whatever goes on between consenting adults should be none of our concerns. If we had personal marital problems, we surely wouldn’t want them broadcast over the world while we worked them out? So why do we have this double standard for celebrities where we think it is our right to know ever little detail of their lives and to comment on it.
In our parent’s generation (I’m talking the 1930s through 1950s here, although your parents may vary), the media was much more restrained. There were morality clauses, and this information just didn’t come out. It was none of our business, and the studios and sports organizations thrived on the hero worship. Perhaps this is what led to the problem: we never realized that the heros of our past likely weren’t heros. They were people, like us, but we didn’t know it.
Our morality is screwed up in this country. If we truly believe in the freedom of relationships that we profess, we should equally believe that those relationship details are private to those involved in the relationship. We shouldn’t care whether Tiger is having an affair — that’s a matter between Tiger, Elin, and anyone else involved, not his public fans. We shouldn’t care if Meredith Baxter is gay. We shouldn’t care if the starlet of the day is having an affair. That is none of our business.
We should stop judging people’s personal lives, and judge them on what we pay them to do. In Tiger’s case, that is playing golf. For politicians, that is representing the public’s interest, not their personal interest. For actors, that is giving the best performance possible. About the only exception are those cases of clear abuse of authority: that is, taking advantage of a position of authority over another — and even then, the case belongs in the legal system, not a trial in the media.
We need to learn to butt out again, and keep personal lives personal.
