Sometimes we love to
hate them, sometimes we love them, sometimes we are confused and think they are
our personal friends, but I personally see the turning regular people into some
sort of demigod to be problematic. I’m sure you’ve all seen images of famous
people, larger than life, being photoshopped into heroic or dramatic poses by
and for a public that can’t get enough of them, their wisdom, their opinions,
their brands. Mirror neurons in our brain encourage us to be like them, copy
their mannerisms and catch phrases, in the hopes of becoming more like them, or
perhaps just being mixed up by passers by as being like them, or having what
makes them desirable, their gravitas.
While I acknowledge I
too am human with the same habits and desires to be something more, to look up
to these people that have been isolated out as worth more attention than the
average person, someone who resembles an ordinary human but through deeds or
sheer persistence and facepower (being seen over and over again until we think we know them) they work their ways
into strangers hearts. Some of them seem deserving. Some of them seem like
attention seeking bottom feeders. But their persistence pays off regardless.
But is there even a problem with this?
I think so. I think
that they become influencers, and for those that have done special
accomplishments that has bettered humankind as a result, they probably do
deserve this attention. But easily the most damaging things celebrities have
done are become synonymous with product placement – where they root for or
endorse a brand of something that quite clearly did not help them become
successful, since they were not an ambassador for that brand when they were
toiling in obscurity, working toward but not yet achieving that success. With
our sucker-like brains and its habit for mimicry, we easily conflate the two,
and unless we have the awareness of being influenced by product placement,
incorporate those products into our life if there is a chance, any chance, that
it might make us more successful. This is the most obvious, and most damaging
aspect, as far as I can tell, but let me tell you about a much more insidious
problem – when they have reached a point where they may be surrounded by yes-persons
and feel everything coming out of their mouth is nothing less than genius.
I’ve studied science,
and, as a by-product of such, I’ve studied among that the history of science,
specifically scientists, doctors and early researchers. And I noticed a
somewhat disturbing pattern, at least from those that became famous in their
own day. That pattern goes as follows: the scientist works hard proving and
disproving theories, opening the way for new research, develops these
groundbreaking ideas, which branch out to still new theories. So far so good.
But quite often, and I think this seems to happen a lot, they go off the rails
somewhere. They start pushing theories that they have not tested, but firmly
believe in, becoming so entrenched in them, that upon reflecting on them in
history books, they seem quite clearly to be mad or somehow afflicted. Their
theories go so far off their own deep end, they are never properly tested by
the celebrity-scientist, merely pushed about as fact, and are never picked up
in scientific circles, published research papers, etc. They seem to be dwelling
in some sort of alternate universe, where they adamantly believe these phony
facts alongside the other facts that they had quite decisively proven earlier
in their career. Nobody else with credibility will touch them, but they go on
believing this. Why?
As far as I can tell,
it’s because their famousness reaches some critical mass, where they no longer
have the presence of mind or perhaps ego, such that they believe every theory
they have is above reproach, factual, as real as the earth beneath their feet.
And I can’t help but think they were worshipped as heroes, in a very similar
manner to current day Instagram models and science-ish celebrities on TED talks
and YouTube.
One science celebrity
comes to mind as falling into this pattern. I won’t mention their name, because
there are many more examples than just theirs, and I don’t want to pick on any
one in particular or try to drag down their name – that isn’t the point of
this. But they have followed the same pattern as these high-profile scientists
I’ve only learned in books. When I first learned about them, they were small
time, but very intelligent. I enjoyed their lectures which they had uploaded to
YouTube, and I think they were great, being a subject matter expert and
eloquent speaker. Very quickly though, once they became famous, they started
branching into other things – subjects adjacent to their specialization, topics
of the day starting with politics but then bleeding into popular culture, other
celebrities, relationship problems, dieting, pretty much anything you can
imagine. Their eloquent speaking and charm, whether a natural gift or
developed, carried them far, and at some point, listening to their video where
they were giving their opinion on religion, I realized I had not been
subjecting this person to the same scrutiny that I listen to people’s ideas,
they at some point simply began washing
over me.
That revelation made
me uncomfortable. I renewed my critical thinking as I listened to new videos
and evaluated them, realizing not only did I not agree with them, but they had
no basis in rationality and fact, and were not provable, or even in many cases,
useful. I unsubscribed, feeling like I had been poisoned to some unknowable
extent, and was sad and cautious. I was so smitten by the fact that a scientist
was being elevated to celebrity status, that I didn’t realize their progressive
change, a metamorphosis into something else, not quite a celebrity, but no
longer a scientist either, in a way.
They fell into the
same pattern, surrounded by people telling them their shit doesn’t stink, they
have untold numbers of self-help books they could fill with their wisdom to
help people of all shapes and sizes to time immemorial. I believe yes, they
have the same trappings as those scientists of old, that their theories are
above testing and are to be held a self-evident. Not good, not worth my time or
willingness to regard. I would now have to carefully sift through everything
that would now fall from their mouth, critically mull it over and give or take
away from its value based on what I know and understand. This is a good thing,
for me, but just makes me more aware about how others are processing not only
their words, but the words of anybody and everybody who becomes famous. People whose
loftiest goals are to sell out to the biggest bidder, to throw off the shackles
of the work they may have in the past seen value in, in favor of 30 second
product placements of their own products or those willing to pay them, massive
companies who see the value in celebrities slipping in mentions of these
corporations in positive light. There’s value in that for them, obviously, but
does it influence their long-term reputation. I’m still not certain.
So where is this all
going? If I were to entertain my most fanciful of ideas, my thoughts drift to
the French Revolution, a time where all the fanciful celebrities (Royalty,
Nobility, Socialites, the Otherwise Rich) were dragged over to the town square
and were beheaded. But will our society ever get sick of all of them at once,
decide to be over and done with them in the most violent means imaginable? Part
of me hopes so, but not because of some benevolence or eagerness for humans to
“succeed”. It’s probably partly jealously, partly stomach-churning nausea at
the thought of the broader idea of SELLING OUT, the exchange of their
credibility and authenticity for cash, dooming those around that look up to
them to waste their hard earned money on junk. What could be any more
satisfying than another revolution, ushering in a new golden age, where in
order to prevent celebrities from jacking our rational thought processes and
desire to succeed, we as a society see fit to erase the very idea of celebrity
from our lives, a Shiva-like destruction with the intention of remaking things
for the benefit of all, erasing them from mainstream thought, save the morality
tale of the dangers of achieving celebrity for it’s own sake, remembered with a
shudder of long past regret, remembered because it was a way of life we never
want to fall back into again.
