Celebrity Worship

I realized that I forgot an important group when talking about loving things that don't love you back--celebrity worship.  I just don't get it.  

How many posters, t-shirts, signed whatevers, and all else do we keep and place in a space of honor in our home?  Memorabilia can be a highly lucrative market because people have collectively decided that this particular scribble on a piece of paper or a photograph makes it valuable.  

When we forget that our chosen celebrity is a person and not a god, we can find ourselves at some interesting crossroads.  When a celebrity does something wrong--illegal or just morally grey--so many people that they have never met either condemn their actions or rise up to their defense.  And then this becomes the most important topic of conversation.  Over a person that we will likely never meet.  And regarding circumstances that we will probably never be fully privy to and frankly will never be essential to know or enriches my life in any way.  And yet, that's sometimes all people talk about, myself included.

Where is the line between appreciation and idolatry?  I know lots of other people that are really good at their jobs, but their positions, while important, are less public.  It seems that artistic careers--acting, music, writing, etc.--tend to veer more toward this kind notoriety, with a some exceptions into academia and bleeding over into sports.  Actually, any career that demands an audience, which included politicians, too--I suppose that would have to be the common denominator.  

What do people do with fame when they have it?  We've seen people burn out in a great explosion, people who realize they don't want to be famous, people who will do anything to stay relevant, and those who can turn the experience into something good.  I was watching Castle the other day and the moral lesson was that "Money doesn't change you.  It just magnifies who you are."  I think fame works in much the same way.  

Then idols become caricatures of people, exaggerating features and stretching proportions.  And somewhere along the way, we forget that they were or are people in the first place.   We do the same thing to historical figures.  When that emotion and complexity is stripped away, we lose our ability to empathize with them or otherwise understand their situation.  With celebrities, we often jump to judging without giving anyone the benefit of the doubt or rise to the defense without considering possibilities.  With historical figures, they've been so washed out with time that don't remember that the decisions people made were factoring in rich context, the background that individual brought in the situation, and the real pressure of the event.  

For the historical events, it's easier to process some of them when we don't remember that they were real people, but so much is missed when we don't factor that in.  How have these decisions changed our world moments at a time?  

For the celebrities, I feel that we do this on purpose.  However, I don't have a good, clean answer as to why.  My brother and I watched Maury for a while mostly because it was something that a) made us feel better about ourselves as human beings for not making the same choices and b) it was mesmerizing and difficult to avert ones gaze, like passing by an accident on the side of the road.  We wanted these persons to be less than people so that we could safely judge without repercussions.  Sometimes, it is just the opposite, that we want to elevate these persons, strip them of their humanity, in order to look up to them and have something to aspire to.  Either way, I don't think that we do this consciously, but still with intention.

We lose something when we take away someone's humanity and see them as something less than human.  People are such much easier to group when we strip away their differences and their complexity.  As an example:  "He's just a thug/ tool/ millennial/ snob/ hipster/ minimum-wage lackey/ dick/ conservative/ democrat/ whaterverelse."  It's easier to demonize people when we see them as less than human.  Anytime someone says "The problems in this country are caused by [specific group of people]," I cringe for many of reasons.  The great atrocities against our own species start by reducing people to something as less than human.  Even that asshole that cut you off yesterday has complexity and is a person.  He might actually be an asshole, but he is more than that, too.  (As an aside, I tend to grudgingly assume that they're on the way to the hospital trying to get to someone they love; it helps me forgive them.)

Remembering that people are people and subject to the same respect and dignity regardless of what they look like or what box they fit in, that's a real trick.  It changes how you approach people and situations.  All persons are deserving of respect and dignity, because they have value simply in being people.  I would like to take that one step further, that I don't believe necessarily that one person is more important than another.  There are those I love more and know better, but everyone has value.  People caught in war, in poverty, in health crises, or whatever else have my sympathy and empathy where I can.  We are connected in our humanity.  

It's easier to put people in boxes.  Everyone has reasons for why they act and are a certain way--not excuses, per say, but reasons.  It's an investment to take the time to consider that when there is a real urge to judge instead.  It's easier to judge.  It's easier to assume.  It's so much faster, too, and saves a great deal of effort.  And what do we now do with all of that extra time and energy that we have?  ...wait in line for an autograph?  I would rather take the extra moment to treat the people I will meet respect, give people the benefit of the doubt, and otherwise remember that we are all people.  At least when I have the energy to do so.  It's a habit worth trying to break.