Message to redwald

Hi Sunnygal, sorry for the delay!

Gee, I never knew there was a “Page Six”! It just goes to show how we learn something new all the time! 🙂

Well, this is your topic, and your thread, so I might as well post the link here, assuming this is the story you mean:

Britney Spears’ ex-manager Sam Lutfi hit with restraining order

Any special reason for interest in this story? It doesn’t seem to be the usual kind of thing we discuss here. Mind you, I did find it interesting, and there’s a lot I could say about it. In fact I did, but in the interest of not boring anyone with my mental meanderings, I’ll keep this excerpt short! 🙂

As far as I can make out, Britney Spears is typical of the emotionally unstable personalities who are all too common in the weird and wacky world of entertainment and “celebrities.” Being raised by an obsessive and probably narcissistic “stage mother”–who wouldn’t even give her the dignity of a properly spelled name!–left her with an unfortunate start in life. Being bipolar hasn’t helped either. So after the psychological breakdown she had a decade or more ago, her affairs have been under the conservatorship of her father.

That’s all well and good, but what’s this guy Sam Lutfi’s interest in all this? Is he a sinister “stalker” who’s never shaken off some romantic fixation he’s had on Britney since the time he was her manager, and “can’t leave her alone”? Or what’s nearly as bad, is he a ruthless opportunist locked in a power struggle with Britney’s family for “control” of this seemingly rather helpless woman, chiefly (though perhaps not entirely!) for the financial benefits he hopes to gain from it?

(The only reason I say that’s “nearly” as bad is that the “crazy stalker” type is more likely to “lose it” and do something truly insane and lethal.)

For all I know, there could be elements of both in Sam Lutfi’s motives. However, the way I read this–and I have to confess that I’m not a habitual follower of “celebrity” news, so I can’t pretend to know what’s really going on there–is that Sam Lutfi and his “supporters”–yes, he has some!–is chiefly driven by a rather different motive. Namely, a belief in wacky conspiracy theories! There’s this whole segment of the “Britney fan club” out there who think she’s being “held” and “brainwashed” against her will, with a load of gobbledegook about “MKUltra Mind Control” and heaven knows what other such rubbish

As for MY mind, it BOGGLES when I read this stuff! No wonder I don’t waste my time on wacko Web sites run by fanatical “fans”!

Mind you, I’m not saying “mind control” doesn’t exist. Witness especially the story Donna just posted about the “Shrink Next Door”! But I don’t think the evidence supports the supposition that anything like that is going on in Britney’s family, though there are always paranoid people, possibly like this Sam Lutfi guy, who imagine that it is. And it’s always possible for someone like Lutfi to convince a bunch of gullible people who tend toward “conspiracy theorism” that that’s what’s happening in Britney’s family, even if it isn’t.

This gives rise to a number of thoughts about everything under the sun, from the wackiness of Celebrity-Land in general to idiot parents who give their children names with dumb spellings. However, as much as I’d love to share it, much of that is tangentially relevant at hest to the purpose of this site. The observation it leaves me with that seems most important is to recognize that people who are a THREAT to us are not necessarily always that way because they’re “psychopathic,” or “sociopathic,” or whatever term we choose to use. Meaning they’re not necessarily a threat because they’re “power driven,” or “lack a conscience,” or any of those reasons implying that their hostility is deliberate and calculated.

People can also be a threat because of their fears (no matter how groundless), their ill founded beliefs and their distorted views of reality. They don’t necessarily have to be “personality disordered” to perceive something–or someone–as a “threat” that in their mind has to be “countered,” even if that makes them a menace to the person or people they’re “countering.”

That may be what’s going on in the mind of this Lutfi guy, though I can’t pretend to know. If you have any views yourself, I’ll be interested to hear them! Take care!