MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents"
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MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents" |
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The Age of Notorietyby Rod Amis
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NEW YORK - A few years back we ran a series of articles here called "Essays on Culture." As the principal writer of that piece I produced an essay which posed the notion that our focus on celebrities has to do with the fact that we now live in a time when it is more important to be notorious than famous.
My idea, which I maintain, is that being notorious is a surer route to public attention than being merely famous.
Fame, after all, is about achievement. Notoriety is only about "buzz," outrageousness, and press agents. Madonna, Axel Rose, Monica Lewinsky, Dennis Rodman, Alannis Morrisette, the World Wrestling Federation, Jerry Springer, the Jon-Benet Ramsey case, Donald & Ivana Trump, et alia...
WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO US?
Our social glue seems to comprise being able to trivialize the essence of our existence. The spiritual, the dominant issues of the world of work, literature, Art, are not as important to us as The Diversion. The opiate of the masses today is scandal and gossip.
As our own TABLOID HART maintains, we have embraced the Trailer Trash mentality and begun to celebrate our dumpster-diving for other people's dirty laundry.
Tearing other people down has become a sport; fratricide as civil discourse. Look at our Presidents, our film actors, our "celebrities." What we focus on about them is how they "ain't any better than us." Dysfunctionality as the sine qua non of social interaction.
IN SPITE of at least one friend who says that we don't need heroes, I tend to disagree. I think that having someone who sets a personal standard for us --- and forgive me for treading into William Bennett's territory here (Lord knows we would not choose the same heroes) --- is an important part of reaching true emotional maturity. Among my list of heroes are:
This list is partial, and not in any particular order. Any of you reading this could point to how each of these individuals is flawed. But, for me, they are lode-stones for what human achievement, and human nature, are about. I could list as many fictional characters.
My point here is that it takes much more effort to believe, and build upon, than it does to tear down. What troubles and saddens me most about this Age of Notoriety is that it denigrates the notion of aspiration, it suggests --- with LOUD REPETITION --- that it is more important to be known by the public than to have PRIVATE MERIT.
A society which rejects the notion of meritocracy is on that proverbial "slippery slope" toward the kinds of social divisions which lead to a clamor for revolution. So it is with us.
If merit is unimportant, and celebrity is everything, then it's easy to make the leap to "Hell take the hindmost" AND to a glaring lack of compassion which must ---- as its counterpoint --- force the demand for social redress.
For every "Bell Curve" there is a G21. What we have is a society in conflict.
BUT the conflict is not as simple as saying, as many pundits have because of the recent crisis, that the wounds of the 1960s and the debate over the Vietnam War effort remain deep and unhealed. That is reductionist historical analysis. The conflict started long before the 1960s, most likely before the last turn of the century.
The real social conflict which continues to be waged is between those who believe that individual citizens are mere pawns in a game of power and greed, and those who believe we must embrace the principles finally codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a conflict which took many forms in the past, from Suffragism for women to the Abolitionist movement to the rise of organized Labor organizations.
The real questions remain: CAN POWER AND PRIVILEGE BE RESTRAINED? WILL AVERAGE PEOPLE BE ALLOWED TO CONTROL THEIR OWN DESTINIES WITHOUT HAVING TO CONSTANTLY ENGAGE THOSE WHOSE INTERESTS ARE MANIPULATION AND EXPLOITATION?.
Those of engaged in this struggle on the side of the average person won't let those questions die.
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