Professional on the left, arrogant jerk on the right. Bonus: Anyone next to Cary Grant looks like a troll…

There is still some confusion how late pop sensation Justin Bieber was for a recent London concert. It may have been as much as two hours, and it may have been only 40 minutes. The ethical verdict on the conduct is the same, however: rude, disrespectful, irresponsible, unfair and arrogant…and inexcusable.

The tardiness is especially inexcusable because the singer didn’t even offer a plausible excuse or one that might prompt some sympathy. He was not kidnapped by terrorists, abducted by aliens, or cornered by a rampaging T-Rex from Isla Sorna. He wasn’t late because he single-handedly rescued a runaway school bus full of kids, or defused a ticking bomb in the London Tube. Justin Bieber was late because he’s an unprofessional jerk who knew that his fans would wait for him until he got there, and so he chose to to get drunk, or get laid, or sleep in, or play Words With Friends with Alec Baldwin, or whatever other selfish conduct suited him rather than meet his obligations as a performer. This is the Star Syndrome in its most obvious and obnoxious form.

The vast majority of professional performers, thousands upon thousands of them over the past hundred years, have managed to go through their entire careers, many of them decades long, without ever delaying a show or a curtain so much as a single second. Those very few performers who have done this, even once, tend to share a few characteristics. They are rich. They are popular. They are spoiled, and they know they can get away with it. There is one more: they don’t give a damn about the people who have paid good money to see or listen to them.

As with the foolish voters who re-elect leaders who have proven that they will lie, cheat and steal when it suits their fancy, it is ultimately the suckers who continue to buy the songs and purchase the tickets who are responsible for Bieber and the others who spit in their faces and expect them to like it. We could banish such conduct over-night, if every fan, every sponsor and  every employer of an undisciplined rock star or substance-addled idol (sadly, we mean you, Judy…Liz…Marilyn) who can’t manage his or her schedule, personal affairs and recreation sufficiently to get to work on time would just write them off and move on to one of the equally talented performers who know how to meet their professional obligations.

It is said that Cary Grant, the grand movie star who learned his craft in the vaudeville culture where professionalism was mandatory, refused to agree to projects including either Judy Garland or Marilyn Monroe because of their reputations for being habitually late to the set. He had the right idea. When people won’t behave ethically out of decency and honor, they need to be taught that their unethical ways have serious, unpleasant and long-lasting consequences.

And honestly…if Cary Grant could give up the chance to play love scenes with Marilyn Monroe, how hard can it be to give up Justin Bieber?

____________________________
Source: Daily Mail