Althouse: Why we should leave Justin Bieber alone about what he wrote in the guestbook at the Anne Frank Museum.

April 15, 2013

Why we should leave Justin Bieber alone about what he wrote in the guestbook at the Anne Frank Museum.

He wrote: "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."

Writing about this causes him to be the main/first thing millions of young people think of when they hear her name. There are, I'm sure, many kids who are hearing about her for the first time in connection with their pop idol, and it's the only thing they know about her. These 2 characters shouldn't have this bond in the mental space of those who don't know much about history. Don't lock in that link!

ADDED: How outrageous is it for Bieber to imagine her as a fan? Have you been to the Anne Frank house? I have. Preserved behind plexiglas on her bedroom wall are pictures of movie stars. (I remember Greta Garbo and Ray Milland.) Based on seeing her room, it was entirely rational for Bieber to think, if we had been contemporaries, she'd love me. Teenage girls do love their pop idols, and remembering the living, not-yet-captured girl does honor her.

59 comments:

MadisonMan said...: Agreed. Young people will say stupid things. Justin Bieber is young.

It's not anything to get outraged over, IMO. But I'm not looking to bolster my standing among the perpetually aggrieved.; 4/15/13, 8:13 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Justin Bieber seems like the type who would have turned her over to the authorities.; 4/15/13, 8:17 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: What he said was self-centered, but not an outrage. If his visit to the Anne Frank museum inspires young people to learn some history (and perhaps understand how plump easy they have it compared to Anne Frank) then it's all good.; 4/15/13, 8:19 AM
lincolntf said...: How do we know he wrote it? We know it's written and that he said he wrote it, but that's simplistic. Wouldn't the Anne Frank Museum garner a great deal of publicity by being tied to Justin Bieber? What about the time between when he went to the Museum and when his advisors issued a statement? Where is that missing time!?! Most likely scenario is that Biebers record company, the Anne Frank Museum and Teen Beat Europe put this all together. Take off the blinders, people!; 4/15/13, 8:19 AM
Darrell said...: Assholes always make everything about themselves.; 4/15/13, 8:19 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: This doesn't fit here but I wanted to share this. (annoying AD in front) Puppy mills are a kind of holocaust.; 4/15/13, 8:21 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Don't lock in that link!

Bieber is a passport.; 4/15/13, 8:21 AM
Darrell said...: If Bieber ever stars in the play version of The Diary Of Anne Frank as Anne, the audience should shout out "She's in the attic!" everyime Nazis appear on stage.; 4/15/13, 8:22 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: It's a lot to expect that a kid experiences adolescence the way he has and emerge with reasonable notions about himself and other people and the relation between the two.; 4/15/13, 8:22 AM
caplight45 said...: Let's see, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Gosnell's psychopathic butcher shop, Iran/NorK nukes...
I think we should put Justin Bieber on the front page!; 4/15/13, 8:23 AM
Tank said...: How is this different from Zero inserting references to himself on each of the former Presidents' bios?

Bieber learned from "the man."; 4/15/13, 8:26 AM
sakredkow said...: He's a teenager and he's probably wanting in education - at least the kind we normally think of for teenagers.

They build these stupid kids up and then they tear them down for their own amusement.; 4/15/13, 8:27 AM
KCFleming said...: Hopefully she would have been a belebensraumer.

But because she was Jewish she couldn't be belebensborn.; 4/15/13, 8:28 AM
rhhardin said...: I didn't see the point of the diary as literature.

It seemed people were picking it for moral amusement.; 4/15/13, 8:30 AM
Tibore said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/15/13, 8:31 AM
Tibore said...: What MadisonMan and AprilApple said. It was dumb, true, but he's young. He'll have plenty of opportunity to learn how not to think in terms of everything orbiting around him. That sort of maturity just takes time.; 4/15/13, 8:31 AM
Known Unknown said...: Fucking Canadians.; 4/15/13, 8:32 AM
Aridog said...: Agreed....Bieber saying or writing anything about Anne Frank is not worth a moment's outrage. I could care less what Beiber says or does, but I care deeply about the Anne Frank story, and Bieber is no part of it. Those who'd try to make him part of it? Inexcusable.; 4/15/13, 8:32 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Breaking News: Justin Bieber visits Humane Society.; 4/15/13, 8:35 AM
Jane the Actuary said...: This is a pretty silly controversy. Anne Frank would have been a "belieber" -- she was very keen on movie stars, and decorated her room with photographs of them. Bieber expressed this in an awkward way, but it's perfectly reasonable and even appropriate to connect her to his young fans and see her as a real person rather than a mythic, otherworldly, "wise beyond her years" figure.

Is Anne's diary as famous as it is because the work itself is extraordinary? Or because it's a comparatively "gentle" way to introduce young people to the Holocaust, without the brutality of the camps?

Incidentally, at some point during their time in hiding, Anne began to dream of publishing the diary after the war. I've never read if this was accompanied by a shift in her tone to be more "inspirational" when she began to see her diary-keeping as writing for an audience.; 4/15/13, 8:37 AM
Known Unknown said...: Anne Murray wrote approximately the same thing ... although it was so long ago no one seems to remember.

As I said, fucking Canadians.; 4/15/13, 8:41 AM
Known Unknown said...: k.d. lang has never visited the Anne Frank Museum, although I wouldn't put it past her to write something self-centered.

In lowercase letters.; 4/15/13, 8:42 AM
Known Unknown said...: Guy Lombardo died before he was able to visit the museum. Rumor has it he sent a telegram that said:

""Unfortunately I cannot be there. STOP. Anne was a great girl. STOP. Hopefully she would have been a Guy Gal. STOP."; 4/15/13, 8:44 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Assholes always make everything about themselves."

So do diaries.; 4/15/13, 8:45 AM
Known Unknown said...: Thick Alan Thicke doesn't even no who Anne Frank is.; 4/15/13, 8:45 AM
Known Unknown said...: "So do diaries."

So do dairies. So WISCONSIN-centered!; 4/15/13, 8:46 AM
MayBee said...: Between the monkey, the gas mask, the tantrums, and being late to performances, Justin Bieber seems to be falling apart.
He's becoming Michael Jackson.; 4/15/13, 8:47 AM
Brian Brown said...: It is a tone deaf statement, but I give the kid credit for going to the museum.; 4/15/13, 8:47 AM
KCFleming said...: OTOH, there's Anne Frank's apartment
by David Sedaris

"Three months after moving in, they took a trip to Amsterdam and the writer started to feel they’d made a terrible mistake. Why settle in Paris before exploring Amsterdam? On their first afternoon, they came across the Anne Frank House, which was a beautiful 17th-century building, right on the canal. Tree-lined street, close to shopping and public transportation. It was perfect. On crossing the threshold, the writer felt an absolute certainty that this was the place for him. The entire building would have been impractical, but the Frank family triplex was exactly the right size, and adorable. That’s not to say the writer wouldn’t have made a few changes. The writer raced through the rooms, imagining how he’d renovate them. It was hard to think with all these tourists coming and going. The writer was in a fever, and the only thing that mattered was this apartment. He felt as if he’d finally come home. It was the greatest feeling in the world. He didn’t snap out of it until he saw a large quote by Primo Levi on the wall: “One single Anne Frank moves us more than countless others….If we were capable of taking in all the suffering of all those people, we would not be able to live.”

He did not specify that we would not be able to live in her house, but it was definitely implied, and it effectively squashed any fantasy of ownership."; 4/15/13, 8:49 AM
Big Mike said...: Millons of people out of work, tens of thousands of them since Obama's first inauguration, Gosnell's murder trial, North Korea and Iran and nuclear weapons, and the mainstream press focuses on what Justin Bieber wrote at the Anne Frank museum.

Am I alone in thinking there's something seriously wrong here?; 4/15/13, 8:57 AM
Big Mike said...: Millons of people out of work, tens of thousands of them since Obama's first inauguration, Gosnell's murder trial, North Korea and Iran and nuclear weapons, and the mainstream press focuses on what Justin Bieber wrote at the Anne Frank museum.

Am I alone in thinking there's something seriously wrong here?; 4/15/13, 8:58 AM
Aridog said...: phx said...

They build these stupid kids up and then they tear them down for their own amusement....

...and profit. How many solid musicians, singers, and yes, production folks, are fed to the sharks every day in the industry? The industry goes on and on, not so for most of the participants. Some really good people, extremely talented, both in the performance part and the production part get used, then ground up like sausage and spit out.

Bieber has an odd shtick, designed by others, that leaves me scratching my head. Then again, I'm not a adolescent girl. If he is lucky he will mature in to a mature entertainer...I wish him luck...he'll need it.

Somewhere along the line his saggy-baggy pants white boy act will have to be put up on the shelf. Good grief, if you want to observe well done saggy-baggy style, observe Kanye West. Arguably more style and more talent....but still part of the publicity machine yanowhadahmeen? Compare Bieber...who looks like a scrawny chicken trying to hump a goat when he walks clutching his trous. My bet is his "people" designed it to look just like that...for the humor. That kind of respect is faint.; 4/15/13, 8:58 AM
campy said...: If Obama visited, I bet he'd write something about himself.; 4/15/13, 9:02 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: Bless. He related to her, in the way he relates to girls.

So touched by the experience, he sent the museum a drum kit and an accordion to spruce up the place.; 4/15/13, 9:04 AM
Astro said...: "Assholes always make everything about themselves."

So do diaries.

Yeah, but most people keep their diaries and their assholes private. They don't expect other people to adore them.; 4/15/13, 9:09 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Don't lock in that link!

Beiber is not an elephant.; 4/15/13, 9:10 AM
Astro said...: Big Mike - No. I hesitated to comment thinking, seriously?, Justin Bieber?; 4/15/13, 9:12 AM
prairie wind said...: No worries about today's adolescents knowing about Anne Frank. That book will be dragged out for every middle school student for ages to come. Multiculturalism is good; Anne Frank is Jewish; Jews are only about the Holocaust; middle schoolers will read Anne Frank. And then they will make fun of how whiny and adolescent Anne was. Middle schoolers are like that.

They should be reading Chaim Potok's The Chosen instead (or too).; 4/15/13, 9:26 AM
sakredkow said...: Also Jay is right about giving him credit for going to the museum in spite of the tone deaf statement.; 4/15/13, 9:27 AM
Bob Ellison said...: I've seen Justin Bieber three times on talk shows. He comes across as consistently charming, bright, and even humble. An excellent role model for youngsters. Here he is on Ellen in December 2012.

Not all celebrities are jerks.; 4/15/13, 9:30 AM
Jane the Actuary said...: In Illinois, a unit on the Holocaust seems to be mandatory for middle-schoolers, and the Diary is pretty much the most appropriate book for kids that age to be assigned; other potential choices can be graphic enough for parents to object. My son struggled with it though, and barely squeaked through the final test, because Anne writes about her feelings endlessly, and he's lost without some actual facts.; 4/15/13, 9:32 AM
ndspinelli said...: Who is Justin Bieber?; 4/15/13, 9:40 AM
edutcher said...: The world Bieber lives in is pretty egocentric.

I give him points for visiting the house.

As for Miss Frank, I think he just hopes she could have otherwise had a normal life.

Ann Althouse said...

ADDED: How outrageous is it for Bieber to imagine her as a fan?

I read somewhere in the parts of her diary that were expurgated, she struggled with the same feelings of lust all teenagers do. She was a normal girl living in a very momentous time and place.; 4/15/13, 9:42 AM
Darrell said...: Ffffffrrrrppppppp fffrrrrpppp ffrrpp ffffrrrrrrrpppppp

Ritmo expresses himself.

You may have read the very same thing yesterday when he was lecturing us about how long you would have to pedal a bike generator to travel 1 mile in an electric car. His answer was unresponsive, as usual. A bike generator puts out around 150 watts at a steady pace, so with a Nissan Leaf, say, you should be able to charge a single dead battery in the array enough in about three hours to maybe go a mile. Maybe.; 4/15/13, 9:43 AM
sakredkow said...: Who is Justin Bieber?

That was the unsightly growth that Selena Gomez had removed.; 4/15/13, 9:44 AM
William said...: Justin Bieber reminds me so much of myself at his age that I can't help but sympathize with him. What to get for the next tattoo and where to put it. These are the universal problems of mankind, and he handles them with grace and dignity.; 4/15/13, 9:49 AM
Aridog said...: Big Mike said...

Am I alone in thinking there's something seriously wrong here?

Hardly. We now have a media dedicated to "Oh, look...SQUIRREL!" I am just dripping with feverish anticipation for the next up date on Jay-Z & Beyonce' in Cuba. Wow...I am sure we all are ....

// is it necessary?; 4/15/13, 9:59 AM
Aridog said...: William said...

What to get for the next tattoo and where to put it.

Thread Winnah!; 4/15/13, 10:00 AM
DADvocate said...: Just(in) the fairly common conceit and narcissims you can expect from celebrities.; 4/15/13, 10:04 AM
J said...: Someday he may grow up but since so much of his entourage depends on his not growing up don't bet on it anytime soon.Paul Prentiss of "Father Knows Best" wrote his book and started a counseling agency based upon what happens to child stars.Given the ones we know of does anyone really think this lost boy 's thoughts about the life and death of a young Jewish girl should be profound?; 4/15/13, 10:04 AM
Oso Negro said...: Odd that Anne Frank's diary should appear in your blog. The other day, my daughter and I were speculating that it might be a fake. Things that are too perfect to be true...; 4/15/13, 10:23 AM
Shanna said...: They should be reading Chaim Potok's The Chosen instead (or too).

We had to read the Chosen. Wasn’t that the one where the guy taught himself German to read something in the original text? That impressed me at the time.

Bless. He related to her, in the way he relates to girls.

It’s actually kind of nice if you think about it that way. But it’s still somewhat self involved. So half points? But it’s not like anybody writes something important on these visitation books. It’s like writing in a yearbook. Fluff.; 4/15/13, 10:27 AM
Amartel said...: Teen pop star is self-centered.
This is not news.
The purpose of this story is to provide the daily Two Minutes of Hate. Certain celebrities are designated Hate Objects. It gets people conditioned to look to the media for guidance on personality. Bieber has been transitioned in the greater media hive mind from adorable child pop sensation to (illicit) sex object to Egocentric Disaster. It's become okay to despise him. It's easy, too; he probably is in real life an egocentric disaster, stupidly playing out his media assigned role. Next up (in a couple of years after a few disasters): the redemption.

I love and appreciate the back story on Ann Frank and her teen pop idol obsessions. Did not know that but somehow it's not at all surprising.; 4/15/13, 10:29 AM
Amartel said...: Also, speaking of Hate Objects, that partisan USC prof is apparently paid to be partisan, and there's supposedly a conservative equivalent.
Link at Instapundit.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/15/video-instructor-usc-sets-controversy-context-missing

Summary: USC thought poli sci studies were getting to abstract and dry and so they brought in political consultants, like the douchebag in the video, to bring a bit of the real world into the classroom.

Great excuse, but I'm not fooled, having attended a college and law school and having seen this same fool over and over again with no conservative equivalent ever. (It is USC, though, so there may have been a real live conservative in the classroom.); 4/15/13, 10:31 AM
TMink said...: He is young and a singer. He is not an ethicist or known for his intelligence, he is known for singing and being cute.

Expecting more from him is silly.

Trey; 4/15/13, 11:57 AM
Anthony said...: I give JB some leeway, as Ann and a couple of others have said, he was probably just (awkwardly) attempting to relate to her as a teenaged girl. I think he's basically a good kid.

But yeah, a big ol' squirrel these days.; 4/15/13, 11:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Perhaps Rommel, the desert fox, would have been a belieber too.; 4/15/13, 1:27 PM
Gary Rosen said...: ""Assholes always make everything about themselves."

So do diaries."

Now I see why AA tolerates C-fudd.; 4/16/13, 12:33 AM
Æthelflæd said...: I prefer "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom for middle schoolers. I couldn't help but think Anne Frank was annoying when I was in junior high.; 4/16/13, 4:54 PM