The Downward Spiral: A look at Lindsay Lohan

As a scientist, the theory is simple.  Once an object initiates motion, intertia dictates that the object remains in motion.  In fact, it’s Newton’s famous first law.  It’s no surprise that this same concept can be applied to the celebrity social world.  No case is more relevant than that of Lindsay Lohan, who has recently embarked on a rather grim downward spiral.

Lindsay Lohan: When she still had Integrity

The stunning Lindsay Lohan was once of my favourite celebrities.  I remember Parent Trap fondly, where she played a double role, (the movie was filmed right here at home in Ontario, yeah!).  Then of course there was Freaky Friday, where she played the role of an older woman trapped in her teenage body.  And then my favourite movie of all-time, (sorry Legally Blonde) is Mean Girls, not only for the gratuitous math content, leading to my favourite line “the limit does not exist,” but for its realistic portrayal of high school life. I went so far as to even read the book it was based on, and the knowledge I gained from both the book and the movie led me to dabble into feminist organizations, where I gained an amazing new perspective in life.  It’s crazy how little guys really know about women. In fact, the very same morals that Lindsay Lohan currently portrays serves as a stark contrast to those which Cady Heron actualizes by the end of the film in Mean Girls.  Check out an awesome director’s commentary of the life of teenage girls with sick Mean Girls clips to understand what I mean:

Aside from films, I even got into her second album, “A Little More Personal (Raw),” which I enjoy for its unpolished, rock edge.  From sweet covers, to intensely emotional songs, it really did seem like Lindsay had a firm grasp on her stance as an artist.  Success was her way, she was focussed, popular, one of the hottest girls at the time. So what happened?  Check out why I liked her album so much first with this emotionally poignant song:

I think the warning signs arose simply with her excess partying.  As news and gossip came out from 2006, she had a hard night suffering from dehydration and likely excess alcohol use, causing her public image to be more Paris Hilton-esque instead of the cute and innocent girl-next-door from family friendly films like Herbie: Fully Loaded.  Then the bulemia and drug use came, where she was on the brink of total devastation.  And soon after in 2007, came the alcoholism, the DUI, the rehab, it almost sounds like the cycle is expected with any up-and-coming celebrity.  This is consequently part of the reason why I respect celebrities like Kaley Cuoco and Reese Witherspoon so much, because they have avoided this entire lifestyle.  Still, Lindsay was able to hold it together more-or-less, still being seen with at least some hope.  She was still modelling, designing, and the public perception did not turn on her just yet. She at least hasn’t gotten into any crazy marriages like Britney Spears.

Back when she was struggling with eating disorders she was still modelling (as here in Vanity Fair)

Things only got worse once the cocaine rumours began swirling around, and when she finally came out with her lesbian relationship with Samantha Ronson, who later Lindsay claimed was a heavy drug user and had multiple affairs whilst with Lindsay.  I had a friend who was obsessed with Ronson, going so far as to meeting her at a club she was DJing at.  Through my relationship with the friend, and my constant watching of Chelsea Lately, my interest regarding Lindsay Lohan and her lifestyle blossomed.  She entered a very secretive state, which I would assume Ronson pounced on causing a rather abusive relationship between the two.  And when she came out from that, her life really took a turn for the worse.  No longer was she the G-rated star.  Heck, she even paraded her nude body in a New York magazine, a serious taboo for professional stars.  She had entered a new state permanently. Even Jamie-Lynn Spears was able to have to some type of normalcy in her life even after having an unexpected child out of wedlock.

I definitely miss the Lohan of old!

This brings to mind an ecological concept I learned in university from an article by Peterson et al. Simply, every ecosystem has a point of stable equilibrium.  Imagine a rainforest, where the trees, the snakes, the monkeys, the insects, the tigers, all live in ‘harmony,’ in that their populations remain fairly stable each year, and every organism satisfies a certain function.  After a disturbance happens, let’s say a devastating drought takes place for a year, where there is very little rainfall.  This will definitely affect the rainforest, but in 2 ways: temporarily or permanently.  If it is temporary, perhaps the organisms can resist the lack of rainfall, and can continue with the same functions ordinarily, it is like nothing ever happened, then the ecosystems remains in the same stable state.  However, if the ecosystem is not resilient, it is said to have reached a new stable state, whereby the ecosystem reaches a new equilibrium but the diversity and richness of organisms has changed permanently.  This system can be modelled physically by a ball rolling on a curved surface:

If the disturbance is great enough, the ball will roll into a new stable state, otherwise it will roll back down into its current state.

So how does this relate back to Lindsay Lohan?  I believe her experiences in clubs, with alcoholism, with Samantha Ronson was a disturbance that was too great!  Imagine if Lohan is the blue ball, this disturbance pushed her “over the edge” where she now rests at a new stable state, as a completely different person.  It’s like the death of a loved one, the trauma may push you “over the edge.” And after grieving one always says, “I’ve become a different person” (aka new stable state), or “I’ve adjusted back to my normal lifestyle” (aka they rolled back down to their current stable state).  Perhaps physics does have a role in sociology.  Nonetheless, Lindsay has definitely hit a new stable state as the raw, doesn’t care about her self-image persona.  It’s the very same image that people are saying Miley Cyrus is approaching.  This is evidenced by how Lindsay is even denying — with a completely sober mind — things that have clearly happened in the past, as viewed through this Sun report on an ET interview.  It is almost like she completely disregards her journey to this new stable state as herself, and she is simply now reveling in the new character she has developed, skipping alcohol education meetings and starring as a porn star in a new movie.  Will Lohan ever get out of the headlines?

Lindsay Lohan today.

Well, to be honest, probably not.  As long as Perez Hilton and TMZ are still around, Lindsay Lohan will be a mainstay of our popular interest.  And it simply is because she represents that leap to a new steady state that so many of us think about, often try to reach and accomplish, but never actually reach.  In a way, the Buddhist philosophy of reaching Nirvana is the same transfer to a new steady state.  Essentially the principle dictates that one abstains from all the worldly pleasures to find self-enlightenment.  This same structure is reverberated in the oft-quoted Hierarchy of Needs by Maslow.  Perhaps Lindsay Lohan has self-actualized, and now she’s living the life she desires, albeit controversial to simpletons like us.  And for that, I can’t help but respect her.  DUI, drug-use, lack of responsibility and dignity, and potential jail time looming aside, Lindsay Lohan represents that crazy within us that wants to get free, that complete and utter disregard and aversion to social mores of what’s expected, and simply how to live the life that you want to set out to create.  And she has the ability to laugh it all off:

So is it a downward spiral?  Maybe.  But take it for what it is, one individual, choosing to live one life, even though it’s destructive, even though it’s deplorable, she can say her life is decisively Lindsay’s.  How many of us can claim complete ownership of our own lives, not affected by a loved one, parent, or child?  It’s a rare quality that she possesses.  At the bottom of the downward spiral, perhaps she has realized something that all of us reaching the top of the ladder of actualization is trying to realize: listen to your emotions, care about yourself first, and as one of my favourite Lohan songs succinctly states, Live for the Day.

Peace and Love! 🙂

I like my integers Positive!!

Elle Woods knew what positivity really meant!

   

One of my guiltiest pleasures is the movie Legally Blonde.  Sadly, I could probably recite entire scenes just by memory. And I know this is a pretty old movie, but just recently I figured out what made this movie so relatable to me…. It’s the entire theme of positivity!   

The basic plotline of the movie is that Elle, the charming character Reese Witherspoon plays, appears to be just as she appears, a dumb blonde, but she ends up actualizing the profession of a lawyer, and winning a high stakes case.  To the casual viewer, or even to me at first, the plot seems totally unreasonable, like how can this Paris Hilton-type character become a lawyer?  On the other hand, after viewing the movie, it may seem that Elle really was rather intelligent throughout, and her exterior image was just her following the belief ‘be who you want to be,’ as Elle refused to abide to the typical ‘lawyer’ stereotype.  However, I believe neither of these was the case.   

Look at Elle’s smile in the picture.  Look at her posture, her demeanour, and her style.  Okay, well you probably just think I’m attracted to this young woman.  But yes, that’s exactly it, I am attracted by her, but it’s not because of her appearance, it’s about how she carries her self.  She always has that positive spirit!  She is therefore to become a lawyer not based on the two theories above, but by constantly having that positive spirit throughout her in the life.  And no I don’t mean the ‘positive spirit’ that people like me claim to possess.  We always try to appear positive, but would actually consider ourselves more of a ‘realist’ who constantly analyzes every situation.  What makes Elle different is that she is just naturally and inherently optimistic and has a real fervour for life.  There is not one scene where she stops believing in herself, where she stops believing in the world, or waivers from her fundamental credo that she obviously took a great time to develop.   

Okay, but of course, we do need to live our lives with some realism.  The movie must have been unrealistic if all it took was a positive attitude to attain success.  But that’s a very negative manner in which to look at it.  Now just take the positive side of the road.  Instead of thinking like a -1 mentality (somewhat negative), think in like a +5 mentality (overwhelmingly positive) where everything always turns out how you want it.  “The movie was amazing, it really shows that the way I am thinking is the right way for success, as illustrated by Elle’s success.”  Now that makes me much happier.   

But what if I now always view the world through these rose-coloured glasses. Sure, I’ll end up taking terrible risks.  Perhaps I won’t study for a test as much as I should, perhaps I’ll end up setting myself in a social nightmare, perhaps I’ll jump off of a cliff hoping that I would live unscathed.  Obviously, positivity is not a one-track road, and it must come in conjunction with our other ideas and morals.  Integrating this step is the challenge in life.  There’s no easy route to attain it rather than simply experiencing life.   

Now let’s assume Cooley’s socio/psychological ‘looking glass’ model.  Basically, this model suggests that our ego, (the perception of oneself) is based on how we believe others view us.  In general, if someone says I’m a loser, ignores me, or doesn’t include me, I’ll feel bad, and thus have a negative ego, whereas if people smile at me, invite me to functions, and engage in natural physical contact with me, I’ll feel good, and thus have a positive ego.  We consequently develop our self through the judgment of others. I’m a strong advocate for this theory because it just makes logical sense.   

But how does this fit in with positivity?  Think about it personally, who would you rather associate with?  Who would you rather have stuck in an elevator with you?  Who would you rather have at a party?  Is it the Negative Nancy or the Positive Pete?  I’ll guarantee you that you would like to surround yourselves with positive people in your life.  It seems flat-out obvious that when you’re down and depressed, you want to have that person who says ‘everything will be alright!’  And the reason why we like this, is because when we’re around people who are just naturally smiling, exuberant, confident, and have that positive self-esteem, we as humans will receive these positive sociological cues from them, and therefore will be happier as well!   

Not only does having a positive view on life help ourselves, but it helps those around us as well.  People will be drawn to the positive person because the positive person will help improve their self-esteem.  In turn, the positive person will have more contacts, more friends, more social activity, and more of a reason to be genuinely happy.  In short, positivity breeds positivity.  It’s like a snowball effect, if you keep on adding positive integers, you’ll get a larger positive number.  Whereas, if you keep on adding negative numbers, the sum will just become more despondent.   

So when people ask me who my greatest fictional influence is, of course I would never say Elle Woods because that just seems stupid and ignorant on the basis.  I would probably say someone like Siddhartha from Hesse’s novel, or Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire because of their perseverance or journey of introspection.  However, secretly, I know I would want to say Elle, because I feel the most important value in life to have is positivity.  That’s the bottom top line!   

Peace and love!! 😀