Last week got me into a little bit of strife, or that’s what I’ve been led to believe.
Rumour has it that readers have had a word into the ear of the editor, languishing in my admission that I’d smoked a bit of green medicine as a much younger man.
No mention of the valium I popped to cure my headache. Only the weed raised concern.
“We all might have experimented once or twice, but why talk about it,” one reader – maybe more, I really don’t know – allegedly said. “You’ll be a bad influence on the younger people.”
It’s a fair point in theory. We wouldn’t want all those young children thinking that the old fool who writes that column in MyCity Logan had done something cool, would we?
After all, they’re spending their free time grabbing the newspaper from the loungeroom coffee table to look for weekend activities, and lo and behold, there it is – a 40-year-old admission from a grandpa who got high.
Whoever you are, dear complainant, you’ve drawn the cynic out in me. But you did get me thinking about the whole influencer thing.
Do you really think I might have, during my 70-odd columns for this newspaper, have become an influencer? I’m flattered.
In my day, we derived opinions from books. And yes, we read newspapers as young people.
I wondered who might have influenced my opinion on things. Billy McMahon, who – for all the young people being led astray by this column – was prime minister of this fine country, was a strong orator and I’d say an influencer of sorts. Or even Gough Whitlam, love him or hate him.
So I went searching for the influencers of modern times, and found a girl called Wengie. Just one name, with hair painted blue and pink, and tied up in buns that makes her look like Sailor Moon. Yes, I have grandchildren.
Wengie’s influence? No idea.
I then think of sporting heroes who might have influenced some of my decisions. Shane Warne says he never did drugs, and I believe him. Because he’s Warnie and he did so many bad things that he’s got no reason to lie about something like that.
Even if he was alive, Warnie’s too old to be influencing younger people. So I went searching for modern-day sporting types. I was hoping the stats would support someone like Ash Barty, but no. Instead, another tennis player is grabbing everyone’s attention. Nick Kyrgios.
Avid readers of this column will know I’ve got a mild fascination for the guy. But I don’t want to BE him.
Actors were all American in my day, although we did have the likes of Graham Kennedy. Funny, yes. Role model, not really. Same for Paul Hogan.
But I see Chris Hemsworth rates a mention as a top 10 influencer. Why, and what about? I’ve really no idea except that I know his family is a bit like the Daddo brothers – one famous and a couple not so much.
In the 70s and 80s, singers started writing songs with political meaning. Peter Garrett danced his way to parliament, so he must have had some sway among the 80s crowd.
It’s at this point I find Cardi B and Nicki Minaj in the top 5 current music industry influencers.
Bob Dylan wrote: “Come mothers and fathers, Throughout the land, And don’t criticize, What you can’t understand.”
Insightful.
Cardi B writes: “Once upon a time, man, I heard that I was ugly,” followed by lines I’d be sacked for repeating in a family printed newspaper.
Nicki Minaj writes: “I’m a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic. You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that being an influencer isn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be.
However, to the complainant who felt it wise to shut my humble admission down, I ask you to think about it.
Whiney Wayne, and yes I speak of myself in the third person because that what influential types like to do, might not be such a bad influence after all.
