Celebrity Culture Matters

Most Madame M:

You’ve jumped to Chapter 2? I am still teasing out Chapter 1! I think we may have a few (small?) disagreements on Chapter 2, but will save them for later!

Your wondering about backlash has me wondering a bit of the same thing!

My sentiments exactly about the doll guy! Not only is he another example of removal from reality (and in a disconnected, odd, and as you said, disturbing way), but that his experience with pretty women has been apparently near-uniformly dismal concerning their mental and emotional health, well, that speaks volumes, loudly—because it is echoed and amplified by the agreeing shouts of legions of men. It is a complex issue, as you’ve pointed out. And I do believe there have been unfortunate consequences of the women’s movement. And while I partially agree with you that more women have casual sex because of the cultural norm, there is also the phenomenon (which I have, uhm, observed?) that self-confident women can often be as casual as men about sex, as long as it is with someone they have no more feelings for than a friend. And perhaps that is not entirely a negative thing. But we digress into the Dysfunction of the Genders thread on The Professor…

I have been to Las Vegas a few times. While much of it is the vacuous pseudo-culture you describe, and can leave one feeling a bit empty and disconnected, there are parts that can be enjoyable in the right vacation mindset. I would say it is a mixed bag, that for this traveler shaded slightly to the negative side.

As for your last paragraph above, I am in complete agreement and cannot add anything meaningful to your well said-ness! :)

This celebrity culture, Hedges says, promotes values that “urge us toward a life of narcissistic self-absorption. They tell us that life is to be centered on the practices and desires of the self rather than the common good.” This cult of the self “has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation, and the inability to feel remorse or guilt. This is, of course, the ethic promoted by corporations (Professor’s Note: See the book and movie The Corporation). It is the ethic of unfettered capitalism. It is the misguided belief that personal style and personal advancement, mistaken for individualism, are the same as democratic equality…We can do anything, even belittle and destroy those around us, including our friends, to make money, to be happy, and to become famous. Once fame and wealth are achieved, they become their own justification, their own morality. How one gets there is irrelevant. Once you get there, those questions are no longer asked.” (33) Amazing how this is dovetailing very congruently with the discussion over on the Professor…

And how does this play out on grand stages, like our very economy? “It is this perverted ethic that gave us Wall Street bankers and investment houses that willfully trashed the nation’s economy, stole money from tens of millions of small shareholders who had bought stock in these corporations for retirement or college. The heads of these corporations, like the winners on a reality television program who lied and manipulated others to succeed, walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses and compensation.” (33) And that’s just the top few; total compensation to the casino thieves of Wall Street run into the hundreds of billions. Per year. And is still ongoing.

You are always finding outside things to inject, so here’s one that appeared in a newspaper guest column: “The protection of our liberty is also dependent upon the electorate being educated, informed, and engaged. We haven’t been any of these for some time, and I believe it’s getting worse. To think critically and solve our future problems, we must have a comprehensive understanding of our history. Freedom requires an informed population. Between the half truths and blatant lies that are easily passed on a daily basis, it’s easy to be misinformed” and takes work. “It might mean occasionally turning off the game or our favorite reality TV show. Living free requires engaging in the democratic process. It’s easy to tune out and think our voice doesn’t matter, but when too many of us do that, we allow those with any power to proceed unchecked. How many of us have contacted our elected representatives, at any level of government? How many have written a letter to the editor? How many of us vote regularly? However, entering the voting booth without doing our homework is equivalent to picking a favorite team based on their colors or mascot—not likely to produce reliable results. Admittedly, I consider myself tardy to the party when it comes to meeting the criteria I’ve laid out. It’s only recently that I’ve concluded that ignorance is not bliss even if being informed leads to frequent frustration. Now, when politics and current events come up in conversation I won’t be looking to change the subject. As Thomas Paine said, ‘Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.’” Ryan Marsh, instrumental music teacher, Nebraska, in his local paper

Which won’t happen if we remain enamored of the celebrity culture and its related activities. “’If only that were me,’ we sigh as we gaze at the wealthy, glimmering stars on the red carpet. But we are as transfixed by the inverse of celebrity culture, by the spectacle of humiliation and degradation that comprise tabloid television shows…We secretly exult: ‘At least that’s not me.’ It is the glee of cruelty with impunity, the same impulse that drove crowds to the Roman Colosseum, to the pillory and the stocks, to public hangings, and to traveling freak shows.” (34) We are not so very different after all. Perhaps less overtly raw and savage than in the past, but perhaps even that change is only repressed and still latent.

“Celebrity is the vehicle used by corporate society to sell us these branded commodities, most of which we do not need. Celebrities humanize commercial commodities. But they peddle a fake intimacy and a fantasy. The commercial ‘personalizing’ of the world involves oversimplification, distraction, and gross distortion.” (37) These words of Hedges could work like electric prods if we are reflecting on them, for they can shock us out of superficial acceptance and instead get into looking at the world outside the illusive lens.

Hedges then goes on to mention the cult of distraction you have already accented. He joins another author in saying it “masks the real disintegration of culture. It conceals the meaninglessness and emptiness of our own lives. It seduces us to engage in imitative consumption. It deflects the moral questions arising from social injustice, growing inequalities, costly imperial wars, economic collapse, and political corruption. The wild pursuit of status and wealth has destroyed our souls and our economy. Families live in sprawling mansions financed with mortgages they can no longer repay.” People buy things because they seem to “confer a sense of identity and merit. Our favorite hobby, besides television, used to be, until reality hit us like a tsunami, shopping. Shopping used to be the compensation for spending five days a week in tiny cubicles. American workers are ground down by corporations that have disempowered them, used them, and have now discarded them.” (38)

But there is more to all this distraction than mere unreality. There is diversion. “Celebrities have fame free of responsibility. The fame of celebrities, wrote Mills, disguises those who have real power: corporations and the oligarchic elite. Magical thinking is the currency not only of celebrity culture, but of totalitarian culture. And as we sink into an economic and political morass, we are still controlled, manipulated, and distracted by the celluloid shadows…The fantasy of celebrity culture is not designed simply to entertain. It is designed to keep us from fighting back.” (38) Ominous. As you showed us when you gave us Postman’s words (quoted by Hedges) at the start of the in-depth review of Hedges’ book, this drowning in a sea of information and irrelevancy makes classic (political) totalitarianism perhaps unnecessary. Inverted (that is, economics controlling politics) totalitarianism can result. Do not many sense that this has occurred in many ways?

And one of the ways that control is effected is this absurd idea that everything can be made public fare, and that it is the public’s right to both know, and weigh in on, the strictly private lives of others, including public officials. Celebrity culture via reality shows, Hedges warns, says it “is normal, indeed enviable, to be constantly watched. For corporations and a government that seeks to make surveillance routine, whether to study our buying habits or read our e-mails or make sure we do not organize social protest, these shows normalize what was once considered a flagrant violation of our Constitutional right to privacy.” (40) Have we really become like the pig farmer who starts out recoiling from and resenting the smell of the pigs who are in close proximity all the time, but eventually doesn’t notice the smell anymore? Or the prisoners accepting the walls so poignantly described by Morgan Freeman’s character in The Shawshank Redemption?

I have quoted extensively from Hedges, but there is so much in this first chapter that begs for quotation and discussion! Mere paraphrasing or general idea relating will not suffice. The man’s words need exacting for the discussion to be placed in proper context! This book is that important! If we do not confront our illusory culture, what does most everything else matter?

And, STILL not all the way exhaled on this very first breath! :)