How Nepotism Ruins Everything
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How has nepotism impacted your life? Perhaps your dad was your coach and because of your family you got a lot of playtime. Or, on the opposite side, maybe someone's family member took your spot for a position that you had rightfully deserved and worked for at your job. Most likely you have or will experience nepotism in your life in multiple different ways. Nepotism truly ruins everything.
Nepotism revolves around every piece of media we humans interact with. To be exact, a common showing of nepotism is in movies. According to statistics, around 28% of the top billed actors and actresses have family ties with the industry, based on a study by Stephen Follows. This doesn't even include the directors and other roles, shown from another study by Stephen Follows where he found that 70% of the highest grossing films had family ties in the production. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal at first, but imagine this: You're an unknown actor but you know you possess so much talent and every role you get cast in you absolutely crush, but regardless of talent, you can’t get any big roles. Instead of you or another unknown actor getting cast, an actor who is the son of the director or an actress who is the daughter of a famous actor receives the role. But when the movie comes out, the performance from this actor/actress is mediocre. For lots of actors, this isn't a what if as these incidents occur quite frequently
One of these incidents occurred in the movie After Earth (2013). In this movie, the supporting actor is Will Smith, and Jaden Smith (his son) is the main lead and plays Kitai Raige. Will’s character is talking through a headset and isn't directly in scenes with Jaden. This means that now an inexperienced actor is carrying this movie and is crumbling under the pressure. Specifically, his delivery of lines were robotic and showed his clear inexperience. But then why would he get the role? The only natural conclusion is nepotism as Will Smith pressured and got him into a movie he was not ready for, as the previous roles Jaden starred in are way less important than the role of Kitai Raige. Also, another criticism is the emotionless and coldness of the interaction of Will and Jaden’s characters. Now why would this be the case? Because Will is an amazing actor, but because of the inexperience and because Jaden wasn't ready for this role. Because of this, the movie ended up getting a 9% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
In the workforce there are so many examples of nepotism, like a construction worker who has worked for seven years for a position like a manager, never takes off, works extra hours, and is a natural leader. They have given their all and rightfully deserve this raise or position, only for the employer's son in law or close friend or even a nephew to get the job because of this nepotism that plagues society. Then what happens is that the hard worker ends up quitting the job and perhaps the business suffers for it. Just because you are close with someone doesn't mean you deserve a position.
U.S. history also is affected by nepotism, notably during the presidency of JFK. When he was elected president, instead of appointing a high level attorney that excels in everything there is to know and do with being an attorney, Kennedy instead put his brother Robert F. Kennedy, who was under-experienced and not qualified, to be the U.S. Attorney General. Robert never had any judge or law experience or schooling at all, making the decision confusing for a lot of people at the time. This shows a huge problem, as nepotism plagues society beyond movies and jobs, but also extends to the government.
Nepotism strips creativity and originality from the world. How are unknown musicians, artists and other creative minds supposed to get their work out there when simply their last name isn't popular? Over time, this could affect the quality of everything in life as decent products are produced by a nepo baby rather than spectacular ones produced by a country boy in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin. Overall, nepotism can harm almost any aspect of life; creativity is lost as well as ideas that may have been great but never saw the light of the day due to nepotism.
