A couple of incidents that happened recently have caused me to sit and analyze the way the public relates to the powerful and the famous. From the point an individual is recognized as a public figure and added to page three of our morning papers, their personal lives become ours. More often the public is hungry until fed news about all aspects of these personalities through the marvel we call the media. The work that these celebrities take up to yield their power, fame and glamour is soon forgotten. The more publicity a celebrity receives the more the public crazes to read detailed personal information about them. At this point it is no longer sufficient for a fan to know that a revered singer is about to bring out a new album. When news of a detailed track list before the release date fails to appease fans as much as news of the singer’s relationship or their cosmetic surgery plans, one can’t help but wonder when we took such a detour.
It is well documented that through out history the powerful and famous have used their leverage to influence and contribute as role models to the lives of the common man. They have been the faces and voices of campaigns against abduction of human rights as well as other anti social elements of our society. The schedule of the celebrity has become more extensive since the days where their profile was limited to creating social awareness. Today an average JOE is a nothing but a walking talking ATM who is cracked open by the glamour of global brands through the magic of advertisement.
The desire of the public (a.k.a consumer) has mutated from comfort to glamour. It is not enough to be seen sporting anything unless it is branded internationally and endorsed locally. So now, we have JOE and JILL smelling, walking, talking dressing and looking like the stereotype star. This goes on for a couple of years, till all of a sudden JOE and Jill need counseling to remind them that they in fact are different people to the stars they imitate. They soon realize the word celebrity by definition requires them, the public, to remain ordinary. Now that Tom, Dick and Harry are also on that track, originality becomes as obscure as the game of Jumanji.
It is quite normal to hear the public rant about the lives of the famous. The media often dissects these opinions into no less than three opposing camps and has critics on live TV debating the issue over and over till anyone who doesn’t care starts to. When the debate is heated at which point it is way beyond reason or logic the arguments become more crude and the comments inhumane. One can’t help but be amazed at how personal the lives of the famous have become to the public. It is as though the word personal is its own antonym in this setting. It is a wild wild circus and the animals (read gossip addicts) are as unruly as they come.
The public is aware that their craze for page three gossip has created a species known as the paparazzi which scrutinizes the lives of the famous under the microscope. The public understands that this maybe violating the personal space of these individuals. However the public is willing to have their famous and powerful have it all as it is merely the price of their fame. Yet again in our glorious history, the sum total of our collective reasoning as a society yields an equation which is totally incomprehensible from the stand point of an individual.
The way I see it, it is the public that require the existence of the famous. It is the public who piece together the hype and make believe persona of the famous through their daily innuendos. It is the public who imitate the looks, clothes and attitude of the famous. It is the public who require and hence create the famous only to build them up, trash and tear them to pieces.
But the question is who pays at the end of it all? Sure the famous have their lives under scrutiny and their mediocre activities sell millions everyday either as tabloid news or headlines of papers. It seems to me that literally if fame has its price then it is the public who pay not the famous. Who buys the hairstyle, hair products, perfumes, watches, clothes and under garments of the famous? Definitely the public, the famous have it all under written as complementary in addition to the ridiculous sum they are paid to sport it. Who has their heart broken or their personal life sprayed across news papers in more than one country? -The famous. Who buys the papers, the public! Who has their life discussed on talk shows and reality TV programs? -The famous! Who sits and watches? – The public! Need I say more????
The Public has lost it! I understand that man by nature requires a live social sphere to exist. A medium where opinions are constantly relayed back and forth, a medium where debate of opposing notions is discussed with logical reasoning, a medium where discussions and conversations held in the interests of bringing about constructive conclusions spear head our development as a race. But this, this craze disorder we have developed for the lives of the famous and gossip around it takes social interaction to a whole different level. So maybe, WE need to relearn the meaning of the word personal. Maybe just maybe the line between what is personal and what is public in the lives of the famous is also the divide between what is irrelevant to what is constructive in the lives of the public.
