Never Say Never (Except When You Do Say Never)

First, I must say that I am not a Justin Bieber fan, have not seen his docu-concert-movie-thingy, and generally despise his level of fame, however, I do find him to be a slightly-more-talented-than-me individual.

Anyway, I had a little thought on his movie-thingy. Someone told me it was sort of inspirational, like a success story or something. At first I laughed at the idea of this. How could this boy's story be AT ALL inspirational? He wasn't one of the people who came up from nothing. He was from the suburbs of Canada, and got picked up from YouTube (which means he could afford a camera and had internet access), singing, drumming (could afford a drum set), and playing guitar (could afford a guitar). I mean sure, I don't know what was sacrificed for him to get those things, or if he wasn't just borrowing everything, but that sends a signal to me that he was far from struggling.

But then I had to think again. In actuality, this is a success story; specifically, for people like me. Let me explain. When you hear about the world's biggest successes, these people generally start at one of two places. They either were from nowhere and had nothing, or were from somewhere-you-wish-you-could-live and had Ben Franklins falling out of their assholes. Rarely do you hear about middle-class people, the ones from just-outside-of-that-big-important-city and had just-enough-to-be-regular, go from the middle to becoming top dog. As a young member of the middle-class, one is left to wonder whether or not you can achieve any more than being the mediocrity of society. But then, here comes Justin Bieber, boy from suburbia, one of the "regular" people, basically the face of the world of musical entertainment today. Suddenly there is hope that you and I can escape the forgotten middle class, and make it to the upper crust, no longer forced to represent the middle 50% of the population. It is possible for us to be the idols instead of the idol worshipers. That, and quarter won't buy you a pack of gum at Wal*Mart, but for some, it's all the inspiration they need.

The usual points for reading, but -20 if you're a "Beleiber," cuz that's just lame.

JOSH, THE SHERM