Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the worst was yet to come, and it did with two shocking revelations in the sports and entertainment worlds. New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, a winner of multiple MVP honors and an object of much admiration, admitted his naivete in taking steriods. And if that didn’t crush enough hearts, pop superstar Chris Brown was arrested for allegedly crushing (literally) his pop star girlfriend, Rihanna.
I initially struggled to grasp the gravity of it all, and with good reason. We come from a generation of presidents, both former and present, who have admitted drug use and still went on to hold office. Baseball players like Barry Bonds, though heavily scrutinized after allegations of steroid use, enjoyed continued success. Singers like R. Kelly and Bobby Brown (no known relation to Chris Brown, as far as we know) continued producing records after their sexual and violent escapades, respectively. Yet to this day, the tradition of holding both political and popular figures accountable lives on.
This time, the pundits went to work right away, speculating on Phelps’ 2012 Olympic prospects, A-Rod’s Hall of Fame eligibility and the end of Chris Brown’s career and good-guy image. That brought me to a fundamental question: Where do we draw the line between holding these figures accountable and altogether killing their careers?
Much of these superstars’ success results from the money, time and attention that regular Americans give them. Our patronage of sports and entertainment invest us not only in the talents of these figures, but also in their personalities, opinions and actions. By virtue of this, athletes, artists and politicians become ours, since their popularity derives largely from the populace.
Just as the public has the power to make these figures popular, it also has the power to just as quickly destroy their careers. Considering this, I couldn’t help but feel some degree of sympathy for these poor fellows — not for their reprehensible actions, but rather for their inability to live private lives. At what point do these figures become eligible for a bailout from the unforgiving eyes of the public?
While the public can, at times, relish in its ability to make and break the careers of successful figures, does it ever stop to think of the repercussions of its criticism? Do our lives and subsequent careers deserve the same amount of scrutiny as the politician’s or the celebrity’s? After all, we may not all enter the entertainment or sports world, but we will, in one way or another, go on to perform a service for ourselves, our nation and even the world.
In my attempt to find common ground with these newsmakers, the following maxim came to mind: in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations. The more I pondered it, the more it made sense: These guys may not have a Princeton education or degree under their belts, but they are as much accountable to serving the public as we are. Thus, it is only fair to wonder if the amount of attention we afford these figures can, in turn, be focused on us, both in our time here and post-graduation.
Those who object to this comparison could argue that, even though we attend a university that calls us to a higher level of public service, not all of us take on public positions after we leave. We, unlike these superstars, don’t willfully submit ourselves to media coverage, and our talents alone brought us where we are today.
Unfortunately, the world in which we live today is becoming less private, both through technological advances and our submission to this movement. Where the digital age allows us to gather up-to-the-minute updates on A-Rod’s support among his teammates or Rihanna’s admissions involving the domestic-violence case, it also allows others to see the foolish mistakes we make late at night or on weekends, as well as the personal revelations we disseminate through various technological means.
I’m not being naive hoping that Phelps will keep swimming, A-Rod will continue swinging and Brown won’t stop singing. They deserve to be held accountable, just like anyone else. To eulogize their careers, however, should also give one pause: “That could be me, so visible to the public eye.” Scarier yet, we may already be them, as the line between public and private selves blurs. As many of the upperclassmen have interviews this month for post-graduate careers, let’s all remember that in this age, living up to Princeton’s unofficial motto may be harder than we thought.
Walter Keith Griffin is a religion major from Philadelphia. He can be reached at wkgriffi@princeton.edu.
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