America's Pathological Obsession with Celebrity

1.16.09

America’s Pathological Obsession with Celebrity

To watch the news media transform Barak Obama from Democratic presidential candidate to celebrity-in-chief after the election is to be reminded of the deeply pathological obsession Americans have with the hero worship which negates the validity of the individual and represents an anti-democratic spirit. I am not criticizing Obama, I voted for him. He seems like a very good man; it is good to have a president elect who doesn’t brag about the fact that he doesn’t read newspapers, like his anti-intellectual predecessor. He seems to have the motivation of wanting to serve rather than to amass personal power and money; and he has inherited a shambles of Bush’s legacy of war, torture, spying on citizens, profiteering, economic and ethical collapse. I wish him all the best in his task of running the country.

Unfortunately, the people who create media celebrity not just of politicians, but also film and television stars, rock stars and celebrity businessmen, scientists and yes, composers don’t understand the true nature of artistic creation and research but focus on the symbolic nature of image and its dissemination in an effort to cater to vicarious pleasure in their clients and profit from them. As soon as the election was over the hawking of memorabilia began. Democracy resides in individuals not the leaders; they are only elected to serve the people. My deep concern is that hero worship of celebrity leaders leads to imperial thinking and makes a mockery of democracy. Our last leader thought of himself as above the law and look at what it resulted in. My prayer is that Barak Obama will be able to see through the hype and live up to his fine words.