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I can't stop thinking about Britney Spears and her bald head.
I keep thinking about it. Talking about it. I can't not talk about it.
Why? Because it's The Great Story of Our Time.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not a fan of Britney Spears' music. I mean, not at all. (Is that clear?) But the shaved-head story is undeniable. Not because it's the story of a young, "sexy," capital-c Celebrity -- possibly -- unraveling before our eyes. It is that, but that's not what makes it great. Its greatness is in how emblematic it is. That shaved head is everywhere: the news, the tabloids, the web, and it's already been subject to many a Photoshop job, including ours (above). It's more than the image of the moment, it's already pop-culture history.
It's no surprise, really. Earlier this year, Newsweek ran a cover story about our "Girls Gone Wild" culture -- the Britneys and Parises of the world, and the young (and not-so-young) girls who are aping their "gone wild" behavior. Perhaps it was exploitative to make that a cover story, but it might instead (or, also) have been a near-last-gasp of the way we all were, Before Celebrity Mattered Most to So Many.
These days, the news stories people are most closely following are "Anna Nicole" and "Britney's breakdown." In the case of Anna Nicole, it almost makes sense: she did in fact die. And she appears to have left a mess in her wake. (Imagine if this is how Marilyn Monroe went. It would have gotten similar play. And her actual death of course did.)
But Britney didn't die. She shaved her head. Big difference.
Maybe she is having a breakdown. But maybe she's not. Maybe she's a stressed-out young woman who's had enough and decided, You know what? I just don't care anymore -- about being famous, being pretty, being busy. Maybe I will just, bit by bit, do what I can to reject it. Seems likely it's some of both.
Yet how easily we can come to conclusions. Yesterday I saw my zillionth Britney update on TV. It was reported that she went to a hotel and struck up a friendship with two females by the pool, borrowing a bikini from one, and then spending the whole day just hanging out with them. The host -- how do these people live with themselves? -- snidely said something like, "that sounds like a desperate plea to be noticed and loved."
First of all: it does? Sounds to me like somebody wanting to hang out and be normal.
And second of all: so what if it is?
We don't only deify people when they become famous. We can also demonize them. Either way, they end up dehumanized to some degree. Even Britney deserves a little compassion, guy.
There's a lot of talk in America that we're living in the main arena of a Culture War: conservatives vs. liberals, traditionalists vs. progressives, the heartland vs. the coasts, the old fuddyduddies vs. the Youth Gone Wild. The way things should be vs. the way they are. On some level that's one bullshit notion, isn't it? Liberty means diversity, harmony. If we're all in this together, then let's all be in this together.
Still, the so-called Culture War is a very real problem to those people who care about such things. I'm not one of them, so I won't deign to speak further on it, much less about how to solve it. There is another way in which the Culture War appears to be very real, though: in our minds. Some of our minds, at least.
If you're Buddhist -- not to leave others out, but I'm talking as a Buddhist here -- and you're of "this" generation (meaning you're alive now, and basically cognizant of the major things going on mass-culture-wise; age doesn't matter so much these days so long as you're plugged into the internet), then you're constantly taking in two BIG streams of information. There's the Dharma (that is, Buddhist teaching, and living) and there's what's going on all around you in terms of pop-, mass-, and sub-culture. They often seem like they clash. Sometimes they do. But it's maybe not yours (or mine) to decide and declare what's good or bad about the culture and to, in effect, reject half the world.
What's definitely "ours" is to see what is. Be a part of it. Allow the "two sides" of everything to be reconciled, and appreciate the beauty and teachings where and when we find them. It's not necessarily easy. But it can be done. Bit by bit.
In terms of society, the way the Britney story's playing, it's like we (everybody) have collectively said, We have officially given up. It seems to mark the very moment that we all decided, We don't care about real news. We want gossip and celebrity, and we like it piled so high that we can't see anything else. We don't want to hear about the war, we don't want to hear what's going on in Congress or Darfur. We're not even following the presidential race. Just give us more Britney! The Great Story of Our Time!
And that's where the real bullshit comes in. Because whatever we hear or think Britney Spears is -- wonderful, bigger-than-life, talented, tragic, sleazy, crazy -- is not what she is. She may be some of that to some people, and none of that to others. But she's also a human being. And -- if we're thinking about it in Buddhist terms -- then Britney is also a buddha. That is to say, she is as inherently perfect as anyone. Just like you. Only, she's in the paper every day.
The point is, there's nothing wrong about being a Buddhist and also being plugged into our world. It is, after all, our world. Our challenge is to not lose sight of the Buddha-nature that everyone has, to not delight in real-life tragedy as if it was all a movie, to not dwell on the faults of others. Britney Spears may be suffering from addiction and mental illness; on a more abstract level, she is surely suffering from fame. But the bottom line is that she's suffering. And as the esteemed Buddhist teacher Ajahn Chah liked to say, it is good to think of everyone, even those we have aversion to, as our "comrades" in aging, sickness, and death.
The culture war in your head is over (if you want it), as long you always try to bring the best in you to what you see, what you consume, and what you do. Be into whatever you're into.
Just don't leave your comrades behind.
Rod Meade Sperry, editor of the Horse.
FEB 28 2006
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DHARMA-BURGER ARCHIVE 
