Cult of Celebrity

As primates we are born to social structure, the troop has a hierarchy and we serve it to survive.

I submit we live in a culture of celebrity, a "cult of celebrity" if you will.

Is that bad?

Should I care?

How do I disengage from the ego-monster of celebrity?

I've witnessed the effect of celebrity, behaviour patterns change in the "glow" of a celebrity...

So what to do?

Examination

I am taken with your question. It is something that I often find myself wondering about, actually. When I am home in the summers, my mother often has that Extra show with Mario Lopez on (what a hunk...). And, I sit there and think: 'I don't care about this at all; why does my mom care and I do not?'

When I saw your post, it made me want to dig into the topic a little more. So, I Quora'd it. I liked some of the answers I found there. Here are some of the examples:

"Celebrities are the popular kids. We watch them because it served a very real evolutionary advantage for our ancestors to collect as much information as they could about those at the top of the hierarchy. It was the people at the apex who took actions and made decisions that sent out ripples of consequence for everybody else. High status also ensured that you got to eat and choose the best mate(s). So the people who survived and passed their genetics down to us, knew to study the "celebrities" of their pack or tribe -- to learn how to emulate them in ways that could help their own rise -- to predict their behavior and perhaps to manipulate it -- to seek out vulnerabilities if they wanted to challenge the alpha -- or slip in when they knew he was away and poach his mate." - Justine Musk¹

"The other theory has to do with archetypes: patterns of personality that we seem wired on some deep unconscious level to recognize and respond to in an elevated way. Most people possess an inner life populated by a number of archetypes, and different archetypes will be prominent at different stages in your life. People who fascinate are people who strongly exude the image and energy of *one* archetype -- the purer the archetype, the more compelling that person. It's like we stop seeing the human being and see, instead, an abstraction, an ideal, a kind of 'god' or 'goddess' working through that individual. They excite us, they light us up -- or we hate and loathe them, depending. But we react to them in a way that seems out of proportion." - Justine Musk²

Analysis and Synthesis

I am not a huge fan of the first theory. I think there is some merit to the idea that the Alpha Male is to be worshiped in the same way that we look to experts in a field to gain our knowledge. There is something distrusting in us when we see people walking down the street offering life advice. I think that theory is more apropos to the authority bias. And, it is a negative representation of trust. I won't go into it as it is off topic.

I AM a big fan of theory two. I think that Celebrity Worship is a conditioning similar to religion. We all fall at the feet of our ideals. Celebrities are our ideals for a post-sacred world. Oftentimes, we look to figures in Hollywood as archetypical representations of our qualities. If you doubt me, think about how similar celebrity life is to the life of the gods from ancient Greece and Rome. They were all sleeping with each other, cutting off heads, creating people from cracking skulls in half... Honestly, Hollywood drama sounds exactly like an Olympian orgy.

Now to answer your question... is it bad to have a cult of celebrity?

I'm not sure. I have never been particularly interested in celebrity worship (or god worship for that matter). Perhaps, though, I am broken in that regard. Using Archetypes as a model seems to be an effective way at motivating the self for analysis and understanding.

If that is the case, then the only thing that is really important is that you have a set of ideals that inspire you. For some people, it is Jennifer Lawrence. For you, it could be Greek mythology, Oriental Christianity, Tibetan rituals, Zazen and Koan practice, etc. Find the teaching modality that truly inspires you to greatness, and you won't be left with any gaps.

Personally, I find the Hollywood worship to be an ineffective method. It focuses far too much on the drama and way too little on the expression of goodness. But, if somebody watches Ellen and is inspired to work for Habit for Humanity, more power to them. I respect the power Hollywood has... I sometimes don't have faith in their treatment of their inherent responsibility.

If you can stand to find a way around Celebrity Worship (which should be fairly simple, given the way you phrased your post), then look toward more effective measures to gain knowledge.

You will not fall behind in life because you aren't caught up with Entertainment Weekly.

Further Reading from that Quora post:³

"Status Conscious Monkeys Shed Light on Celeb Obsession" abcn.ws/1BTtwqc

THE HERO AND THE OUTLAW: Building Extraordinary Brands Through the Power of Archetypes
amzn.to/1Hdq4LY

FAME JUNKIES: The Hidden Truth Behind America's Favorite Addiction
bit.ly/1GDZ9ed

MARILYN: The Passion + The Paradox
amzn.to/1xpMJEK

Other sources to look at:
http://www.livescience.com/18649-oscar-psychology-celebrity-worship.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-big-questions/200912/why-we-are-obsessed-celebrities

Works Cited:
1. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-worship-other-famous-people
2. ibid.
3. ibid.

Arkayik wrote: As primates we are born to social structure, the troop has a hierarchy and we serve it to survive.
I submit we live in a culture of celebrity, a "cult of celebrity" if you will.
Is that bad?
Should I care?
How do I disengage from the ego-monster of celebrity?
I've witnessed the effect of celebrity, behaviour patterns change in the "glow" of a celebrity...
So what to do?

Personally I see a difference between 'born into celebrity' and 'seeking to be celebrity'. It may result to a similar personality, but the origin is different. Personally thinking, people should not be judged on their fame. People should care more about the person behind all of that. In this world where people seek more, we say that we become 'less'. In a world with less we say that people become 'more'. Would that make difference? I guess not, the difference is not about what we have, (fame, money, good job, etc) but what we do with it. What you do with this is totally up to you!

Force shine with you,

~ Aqua

I think we are all engineered out of the box to be slightly dissatisfied with most everything, just as a fundamental drive behind what we perceive as motivation, the shadow to curiosity perhaps (not to suggest we have to be though!!). New becomes old so we tend to discard it to find a newer new! And so maybe their is two types of celebrity; the entertainer and the aspiration. The former might feed curiosity by providing the positive sensation associated to 'new' in experiential terms, while the later represents the dream and fantasy to distract us from that underlying dissatisfaction that might persist.

And as a continuum about human expression the celebrity might persist as a yardstick to represent some shared standard which we can take into our social environment - therefore the celebrities also have to be popular, to be effective to that end as a reference point. If viewing it in those terms, I don't think it is necessarily bad, and I wouldn't care so much unless they explicitly represent things I disagree with.... but lets look at that in my context; I don't have to agree with it, because as a reference point it helps me define where I sit in expression of 'my' own views with other people. Depending on how I relate to it personally though, as aspiration or entertainment. All just IMO though.

So I guess I just wouldn't want it to be too far from my own views, as I might start to feel and perhaps become marginalized from the majority view and more importantly that my own life would probably start to pale in comparison!!! How to disengage is just to ignore it, replace them with healthier things...if they matter. I think any glow might just be normalizing oneself, in some form of slightly autonomous mimicry due to the perceived benefits of being celebrity. It might though have benefit as a social lubricant at the risk of seeming less genuine, but perhaps they are better seen as the canvas to develop your own actor in the theater they cast!?

Connor L. wrote: I AM a big fan of theory two. I think that Celebrity Worship is a conditioning similar to religion.

Number of good points, thanks.

I had arrived at the first quote, but hadn't considered the 2nd possibility.

I hiked a lot in my younger days, and I always preferred to follow as it gave me a better chance to see where the potholes were in the path , which sort of speaks to #1...

I think the assumption from which I was operating is that the cult of celebrity gripping our culture is bad, but that seems simplistic and absolutist...

Perhaps its just bad because I'm not the celebrity

Anyhow, good stuff Con, thanks for some new avenues to mull-on...

Adder wrote: It might though have benefit as a social lubricant at the risk of seeming less genuine, but perhaps they are better seen as the canvas to develop your own actor in the theater they cast!?

If the world be a stage, and we actors upon it, I guess that is another way to look at it.

Courtesy is certainly at times an affectation and we need it to - as you say - lubricate society. However, I suppose with anything powerful, the good and bad are magnified by the relative force.

The author of the Traveler, John 12 Hawks, has a real thing about the Cult of celebrity, to the point that he's still not revealed himself. So that started me wondering, what is so bad about this. Is there an inherent defect or is it situational...

I suspect there is good and bad, just depends is the likeliest answer...

Funny but you seem to have the same idea I have about the whole organized Hollywood important people thing that exist. I keep aware of the ongoing. Some of it amuses me but my focus... my focus stays my focus. So many things can grab and take ur attention so many ways and some to me are waiting time thinking about what others are wearing and doing takes time from my personal focus. I can tell u truthfully friend Hollywood's most popular theme for the moment holds nothing compared when my son thinks of me as superman or THE batman. There's no greater love to me than my own love telling me " I'm glad I have u" dude I love Denzell but he ain't got nothing on my family as far as attention. It's my focus value.


And as far as the primates comment, I preach and teach the potential of the human. The human potential has yet to be defined, it is written every day here in this Temple and where it's members stand. New verses ever day!

Is that bad?
I think it depends on how it affects you.
Should I care?
If it affects you, then you should care.
How do I disengage from the ego-monster of celebrity?
If you are implying that you are the Celebrity (and even if not) a good way is to practice being in the moment. if your goal is to DISENGAGE, then one way (not the only way) is to not be influenced by a persons (or your own) past achievements or "Future Goals".
I've witnessed the effect of celebrity, behaviour patterns change in the "glow" of a celebrity...So what to do?
I think that a persons behaviour patterns WILL change as their celebrity increases. One reason is because people interact with them different than if they didn't have any celebrity status. Some interactions are invasive, which can put someone on the defensive. I think being a celebrity is something that only "Celebrities" can understand, sure non celebrites have celebrity moments where they are well known or even conneted with the right people. But, the liefstyle of being a celebrity can often times require a person to change (positively or negatively).

I'm not even sure I answered anything...i'm just contributing another point of view.