In case anyone hasn’t seen and read the news in the last few days, Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie recently had a daughter while staying in the African nation of Namibia.

Since that time the media have become obsessed with this newborn and have clamored for imagines of the child. The Pitt-Jolie Family finally agreed to sell pictures of their child, reportedly purchased by Britain’s Hello! Magazine for the astounding sum of $7 million dollars, what does this say about society?

Hello Magazine would not pay such a ridiculous sum if it didn’t have a reasonable expectation that those costs would be easily recuperated given an expected increase magazine sales as a result of the exclusive photo spread.

We live in a “star” obsessed culture, totally ignorant of substantive issues and wholly distracted by the Bread and Circuses we are offered each and every day, it is for this reason that leftists can convince us that higher taxes and federal control over retirement savings is an excellent idea. It is for this reason, that hack politicians on the left and right can be consistently re-elected to Congress, it is for this reason that our leaders can ignore impending financial meltdowns involving Social Security and Medicare and it is for this reason that pork barrel spending continues unabated…why shouldn’t it, as long as we have our pictures of Shiloh Pitt, why concern ourselves with anything but the inane and the trivial.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5055240.stm