But What Does David Beckham Think?

Ewan McGregor has snubbed a prime time slot with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain following controversial comments from Morgan regarding the Women’s Marches that took place over the weekend. He attacked what he saw as “the more repellent side of feminism: the vile, crude, man-hating, violent, nasty side,” saying “if you let the nasty women win, you lose”. As a result of the clash between the two there has been a great deal of discussion over McGregor’s decision and whether it would have been a wiser choice to go on the show and tackle Morgan face to face. Morgan has hit back at the Trainspotting star over the refusal, calling him “a narrow-minded, stupendously self-aggrandising, anti-democratic little twerp”. But from the fray a question arises, how much power should we give celebrities?

We often see celebrities using their status to speak out on important issues (although perhaps not always the important issues), and it’s interesting to see how easily swayed some can be by such an influence. Some would stand steadfast against David Beckham declaring himself pro-remain, however for some, a public statement of that kind could make up their mind. Some would not give a second thought to climate change without a helping hand from Sting or Leonardo DiCaprio, while others work tirelessly on such issues without any prompt. The point is, for some people, what celebrities have to say on things happening in the news is important, but should it be? Giving that kind of power to people who have largely don’t have much knowledge outside of what we have (there are of course exceptions, and people who know a great deal about what they talk about publicly) could be dangerous, not to mention absurd. The twitter ramblings of Piers Morgan can not be a sound foundation for an opinion, and to pretend otherwise is ridiculous.

On the satirical BBC programme The Revolution Will Be Televised, a regular sketch would see reporter Zam Zmith visiting real-life red carpets on behalf of BBCOMGWTF, and ask baffled celebrities questions like “Do you think we should interfere in Syria?”. The reactions from the celebrities is often telling about how much we can trust and listen to these people. Many who speak out most likely have an agenda of their own (some have speculated that the McGregor/Morgan spat was a PR stunt), or have simply had a thought and wish to share it, and we don’t necessarily have to take them particularly seriously. Letting your mind be swayed is something easily done, but perhaps more emphasis should be put on independent thought and not allowing celebrities’ opinions to cloud your judgement. Otherwise people like Morgan start getting ideas about whether we care what they think.