I actually have a strong dislike of celebrities and our celebrity culture which instead of merely admiring outstanding ability in various fields of human endeavor values fame for its own sake in an era when more than ever, fame can be the product of hype, strategy, money, luck, the zeitgeist, coincidence, infamy and shallow exhibitionism. As the latter has increasingly become the basis of fame in the last several years I have come to distrust celebrity itself and to feel contemptuous towards those who worship it.
I do not believe in giving any human being more value and respect than I would anyone else based on the fact that people know their name, they have millions of followers on social media, they have a certain net worth, they appear on television, in movies, in newspapers, on Youtube, etc., they own a spectacular house or car, etc.
Our society on the other hand places great value on fame, no matter how undeserving it is, and gives these people free gifts, free hotel rooms, a pass on behavior that others can't get away with, the benefit of the doubt, and it pays great attention to these people's opinions, even when they are as dumb as stuffed bunnies. Even when it is a person who is outstanding at what they do, I agree they should be admired, but I never voted for them to become our rulers or enter the pantheon of our Gods. My heroes are not necessarily famous. My heroes have achieved extraordinary things that have helped the world or expanded the boundaries of human achievement. And even my heroes are still human. They are not Gods.
There are some stories about celebrity arrogance that have always stuck in my mind. One was when Barbara Streisand and James Brolin dropped in at their favorite restaurant in New York, a place that for ordinary people has a waiting list of six months to a year (while I'm on the subject I would never give any restaurant that power - no meal is worth it!) When the celebrity couple came in there was a non-famous couple celebrating their anniversary at what happened to be Streisand and Brolin's favorite table. So they went to the owner of the restaurant and the other couple was forced to move! And the newspapers later praised Streisand for paying that couple's bill! I don't care. No one on earth would get me to move from my reserved table if I had waited six months for it. I would have made them arrest me. No celebrity is more important than you or me or anyone else. The rules of polite society need to be applied equally to everyone.
The other headline recently is that Selena Gomez is the highest paid Instagram poster. She gets $550,000 per post. My first reaction was, "I would pay not to have to hear Selena Gomez' opinion on anything." My next is that I understand that for companies who pay her this is just business. In our bizarre and backwards values system, someone who appeared on Disney television and has a decent singing voice but no other actual qualifications can recommend something and tens of thousands of people will purchase it.
I reject the authority of any celebrity to influence my taste or opinions. I don't like it when social causes get celebrity spokespeople because I only care about the validity of the cause itself, on its own merits. Do not give me the false and unearned authority of a famous person to try to persuade me of anything.
This is why when I see posts about "what celebrities endorse Steem" or "what celebrities will support cryptocurrencies" I feel outrage. It is as if the speaker thinks that Steemit/Steem or cryptos won't be legitimate when it's just us in them, that we need celebrity validation to become real and important. No. We are already here. We are valid. We do not need some fluff-headed celebrity's endorsement. And more than anything, a celebrity coming here and throwing their weight around and sucking up all the available oxygen would ruin Steemit, IMHO.
Definitely agree.
And I might add, the whole attitude and treatment of celebrities along those lines is toxic not only to everyone else, but even to the famous people, themselves, whether they realize it or not!
It's toxic to everybody else, because it implies that every human being on this planet is somehow worth less than those people, simply because those people are famous. And deep down, we know that is garbage, and that it is unjust, and it is appalling to us. (To say nothing of what it does to the self esteem of the children to be "nothing" compared to so-and-so.)
But it is also toxic to the famous people, as well, because they cannot BE more than human. They cannot BE perfect. But if they are to be treated as better than human beings, they are then expected to ACT better (more perfect) than human beings, even though they aren't. As a result, they are attacked viciously whenever their humanity does show, because hey... they were supposed to be better than everybody, right?
So it's not good for them, either, ultimately.
My advice: Save your worship for the real God.
Yes, I agree. I am not without compassion for the actual celebrities. It's just that I figure they have enough money to help themselves when and if they have an existential crisis. What I really despise is the values system that supports it. It is definitely toxic, and we are seeing young people (and even older ones) doing anything to be famous rather than doing whatever it takes to become a good human being and to contribute to our world.
Indeed. To the extent that the younger generations now need everybody to get a gold medal for everything, so nobody feels less special.
Hopefully, at some point, humanity will go back to the recognition that famous or not, rich or poor, genius or not especially bright, every human being has intrinsic value, and that all kinds of people are VITAL to human society, one way or another. Right down to people who can't even help themselves, making those around them less selfish, and making them grateful that they CAN help themselves.
Celeb worship is just a really sick attitude toward human beings in general.
Agreed. But no one wants to be the guy who mops floors.
-laugh- Actually I know a couple of guys who like to just mop floors... as long as they're paid well.
But I know what you mean. We do aspire to the best we can be, including economically. Everybody wants to make the best life for themselves they can, and if you can succeed in something that will make you rich, and it's not wrong, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Only with people getting swelled heads, and people helping them get that way by treating other people like dirt.
People give rich people (and the old 'aristos') a bad name as a rule, but there have been plenty of people who were rich, famous and powerful, who were really, truly, genuinely decent human beings, who cared about their fellow men, and did not think they were better than anyone else. Heck, one king (was it St. Louis?) used to feed the poor at his own table, and prefer to eat their scraps than be served something special. Others built hospitals for the poor, and some even nursed the sick with their own hands.
Money and even power, and humility and sincere charity for others are definitely not mutually exclusive, even if they are fairly rare. It's just a choice the rich or powerful person has to make for themselves. But money and power/authority, in and of themselves, are definitely not evil things. Not till men choose to use them to do evil.
Not many people stand up to the temptation to do otherwise, though, unfortunately.
good post
plise followback..