When rich and famous movie stars, athletes, and other celebrities whose function might elude us, how to people feel about that?
According to an Associated Press-NORC poll, two-thirds of the people they asked were not buying celebrity endorsements of various politicians–mostly Democrats. The poll found 39% disapprove of celebrities shooting off their big mouths to try to influence an election, with only 24% approving (https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article297750653.html).
Are you surprised? Or are you one of those characters who exclaimed, “Holy moly! Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris? Well, my vote goes to Kamala, then!”
Why would anyone care what some caterwauling “artiste” has to say? I mean, vote for J. P. Swampgas because Johnny Cafone endorsed him in a concert?
This is why our country’s founders placed so many restrictions om the popular vote.
Yeahbut! Maybe the poll means more and more of us are waking up. Maybe we’ve had it with celebrities. Maybe they should just shut up and make corny movies about downtrodden feminists who turn into superheroes.
(Don’t give them any ideas!)
I’ll try to get back soon with song request. Right now, have a small disaster to deal with. One of the dogs just threw up on the carpet, have to clean it up, then proceed with more
enjoyable things.
It could be worse.
The truly famous, frequently live in a world unlike our own. Many of them can insulate themselves from the realities of day to day life, and this definitely affects their ability to understand even the simplest challenges that most of us face every day.
Every transaction in life involves a degree of emotional cost. Simply running up to the convenience store for a pack Tic Tacs involves a degree of emotional risk. What if you forget to take your keys and lock yourself out of the house? What if the car doesn’t start? What if you collide with another vehicle along the way? What if the parking lot is full at the store? What if they are out of Tic Tacs? What if? What if?
These are not unusual things; we all face these daily, but the fact is that even mundane tasks place a minor burden on our psyches. Well, if you have the money, you can send someone to fetch the Tic Tacs and let them deal with the unknowns. Beyond that, when someone’s face is well known to the public, they pretty much have to leave the mundane transactions to someone in their employ. Elvis could mesmerize a crowd, but if he bought his own Tic Tacs, it probably wouldn’t go so well.
Instead, like many of the very famous, he was somewhat forced to withdraw from many of life’s day to day challenges, leaving the mundane to faceless underlings. Fame and fortune, by necessity, remove people from the mundane transactions of day to day life. I believe it was David Rockefeller, whom, back in the ‘70s, talked about the ‘average $100,000 per year family’, blithely unaware that there were many families at the time who would have been very grateful for a $20,000 per year income. A very famous and wealthy man, indeed, but entirely removed from the realities most of us face daily.
Famous actors and musicians tend to be highly skilled in their craft, but in many cases, they are also highly specialized, to the point of being relatively helpless outside of their field. If I wanted to talk to someone about how to perform in an elaborately staged musical production, Taylor Swift would be a good choice. OTOH, if I am thwarted in a Tic Tac buying trip, because my pickup refuses to start, I doubt that Taylor Swift’s advice would be all that valuable.
Throughout scripture, idolatry was a recurring issue. Worshipping an unseen Creator seems to be difficult for many people. Moses was instructed to tell Pharaoh that he was sent by I Am. That has always struck me as very significant. I Am; the Creator, exists even though He was not represented by physical, visible idols, which were everywhere in the ancient world. Yahweh, was unique in that He did not ever represent Himself with some physical object. Even the Ark of the Covenant was not to be worshipped and was never intended to represent Yahweh.
In Western Culture, we don’t often see idols, in the sense of some statue that people pray to, or burn incense to, but many people idolize fame. Especially in the era of YouTube, where anyone with a smartphone effectively can produce and distribute their own television show, the tendency to idolize familiar faces has gone off scale. There are YouTubers with millions of followers and might well be recognized while shopping or doing some mundane task in a public place. It would be very easy for someone in this situation to begin to see themselves as more important than the average person on the street.
Does someone being recognizable to the greater public make their opinions important? If someone is an authority on a certain subject, does that make them an authority on other subjects? Entertainers are individuals. Some are great people, while some others are selfish, narcissistic, self-destructive people. We’ve all heard about famed entertainers who have collapsed into substance abuse problems, and/or illegal sexual activities. As I write this, one very famous entertainer currently stands accused of numerous crimes, which may well implicate any number of other famous people in illegal activities. Is such a person’s advice valuable?
Fame and prominence don’t necessarily make someone a wise advisor in practical matters. But there’s also a negative side effect to fame, which is the near necessity to signal virtue in the public eye. Because famous people are placed on a pedestal, the masses want them to be examples in all matters. I would state that this is the point where the human tendency towards idolatry becomes a source of danger. Just because someone gives the appearance of being on a higher plane, doesn’t mean that they actually are on a higher plane. No one is on a higher plane; we are all mere mortal humans, and stand before our Creator as flawed sinners.
Publicly supporting certain charities or popular causes has become very common among celebrities and if they are connected with certain causes or charities, they may alienate some part of their audience, even to the point of becoming “cancelled” by the general public. Famous persons are known to employ the services of consultants, to advise them of which charities to support, lest they alienate their fan base. At that point, it is quite possible for principle to be discarded in favor of image building. No different than the graven images forbade in scripture, the priority becomes appearance, over substance.
I once visited the website of one of the most famous musicians in the world, and there were a string of “badges”; logos of causes and charities he supported. I found it off-putting, to say the least, and it reduced my opinion of him. Jesus instructed His disciples to make their charitable donations privately. Whatever charitable works we perform should not be shown as a badge of honor. Beyond that, our charitable works should be at our discretion, and we shouldn’t have to defend ourselves from criticism if our chosen charities do not please the tastes of the masses. Of course, this problem vaporizes if we heed Jesus’ advice to keep such matters strictly private.
Celebrity, and I despise the very word, has power. For many years, celebrities have used their influence to publicize certain causes, and have shaped public opinions. In the late sixties, on into the seventies, entertainers spoke out against the war in Vietnam. This became a rallying point for youth. I was no fan of that war myself, and worried that I would be drafted at the time, I was quite thankful when it ended, so I am not entirely unsympathetic. However, I still question the ethics of using fame and celebrity to leverage one’s opinions into broader influence of the public.
Since that time, it has become evermore fashionable for the famous to be outspoken on various issues. Those who fail to get on board with the “right” causes may find themselves losing popularity, and that usually comes with a financial penalty. If one speaks out for a “politically incorrect” cause, public shaming and cancellation are all but inevitable. There are famous people today, household names, whose careers have nosedived because they supported conservative causes, or merely brought up conservative talking points during an interview.
But that’s the world in which we live. Persons of fame, strut about, displaying their opinions like a peacock’s plumage, blithely unaware that there are many average people whose lives are being negatively affected by policies they support. These are people whom, in many cases, never experience anything so mundane as buying breath mints at a convenience store, and may well be completely detached from the realities that most people face, every day. From their position in life, the average person is simply one part of an amorphous “public” and they keep their personal brand viable by skillfully managing their public image.
With that above in mind; why would anyone make a voting choice based upon a celebrity endorsement?
Not much I can add to this!
I used to write because I wanted my books to make me rich and famous. That wasn’t the only reason, or even the main one–but it was there.
Of course I want my books to be successful. But that’s not my motivation anymore. I write because that’s who I am, that’s what I can do. And I write about politics because I have credentials there.
As for idolatry… The idols are always changing, but they’re still just idols. And an idol is–well, nothing.
Sadly, creative works don’t seem to be where the money is, these days, unless you are writing canned hits for famous artists, and much of that is done by committee, these days, with underlings submitting snippets which the composer knits into a song that ticks all the boxes for being a hit. Then someone very famous records it, and everyone is agog for a few weeks, at which time that song is forgotten, and the next surefire hit repeats this endless, tedious process.
I enjoy writing, but I doubt that I could create anything of novel length. Maybe a short story here or there, or a magazine article, but magazines are all but dead, these days.
The tendency towards idolatry seems to be a common thing among fallen mankind. Aside from outright worship of graven images, people will go to great lengths to identify with sports teams, or even certain brand names. I’ve lived in the cities which hosted the Vikings and the Broncos, and I was always glad when they had a good season, but never allowed their wins or losses to affect my mood. But I’ve seen many people who were so tied to their favorite team that they wore it one their sleeves and would be disappointed, if not angered, by an unexpected loss. I don’t know if I’d equate that with Baal worship, but some people push it very far.
We certainly saw some peculiar behavior when we used to go to games at Yankee Stadium. Idolatry is never far from the surface.