Humiliated?

According to InTouch Magazine the Kardashian sisters have been "Humiliated by the their men."

My Serpentine Friend said, "They needed help?" How exactly can someone with no self-respect be humiliated? Related, did they pose for the cover photo that accompanies the story about their humiliation?

The kicker above the main headline says "Sisters in crisis." That part I believe. This is not a story that will end happily.

Having spent a whole lot of time on stories, however, this story does seem to me to be important. What does it do to our character if we amuse ourselves with stories like this one? As InTouch documents every week, celebrities are a mess. They take one risk after another causing their lives to float from crisis to crisis—their love lives are a succession of worthless adventures with increasingly worthless people, they use drugs and alcohol the way the rest of us use Kleenex and they leave emotional wreckage behind them wherever they go.

To buy a magazine such as InTouch, to watch entertainment shows on television or to skim websites about celebrities is to do one of two things—both of which are equally damaging to our character.

The first is to be moved to live similar stories ourselves. We may be smart enough to see that the long term prospects for such a life aren't good but we'll tell ourselves that it is just for a while. "I'm not like the people on Jersey Shore but I want to have a little fun by acting like them for a little while." This is a little like saying, "I'll drink heavily for five years and then I'll stop."

The other is that I will come to hate these people and amuse myself for hours on websites that mock them. And, by doing so, I will learn to treat people in ways I should not. As the Serpentine One says, "If it is entirely someone's fault they screwed up, you still help them." We can't help the Kardashian's of course—we don't know them and, in any case, it would be like trying to help alcoholics.

But we don't have to watch.