Paparazzi Culture

One way or another you are a brand: corporate, commercial, professional or personal. And in the age of YOU-tube and the near death of actual privacy the separation between what we do and who we are has become a lot more blurry  I argued with a friend of mine several years ago about separating his life and his work. He was defined by what he did. It turns out he might have been more correct than I was in defining himself, he was just ahead of his time.

What we do as our livelihoods should be completely separate from who we are in private. A CEO can be a cowboy or a clown, or like UFC fights, or Ballroom dancing, or maybe he moonlights as a male stripper, has a whole group of couples that he swings with, and is an avid nudist. Who cares! Recently pictures of a Canadian judge in various states of undress were posted on-line. The resulting outcry for her job is appalling.  That was private time, that shouldn't have made it to the web in any case, but it did. How the public reacted is the stupid part. Yes, she's embarrassed. Yes, I bet she wishes the photos never surfaced. Does it change the way she does her job?
 Aren't we all entitled to our legal personal pleasures, without judgement. Doing these kind of things in no way effects the ability of people to perform their duties. Studies have indicated for years that recreation is good for all of us. Take apart the word and you get re-create. It's easy to see how applying that to yourself has to be a good thing come Monday morning, or after a holiday that really takes you out of your backyard. Unless your own backyard is your retreat. I'm all for whatever works.

Unfortunately I seem to be wrong. Like the US political machine, anything can and will be taken out of context and used against you whenever possible. Unfortunately we all need to be careful about things about us that exist about us, even from long ago. My frat days have little to do with anything I am about now, but I know that somewhere in a scrapbook there are photos of me that might be incriminating in the right context. I'm not ashamed, just a bit sad. Who I was, is not who I am and who I am in private is supposed to be my business.
We live in a world where your suit, shoes, business card, office and maybe sign or brand define a small part of who you are. All the rest can also become public and change the way clients, customers or the public sees you. It's wrong, but it doesn't make it any less possible.

Haven't we learned from the tabloids that even if you have the picture that isn't the whole story, and sometimes, the picture just wasn't meant to go public. So if you have a picture that could incriminate someone, give it back. Help them preserve the life they want to lead, and don't post it if it isn't about you.