The Reaction: Has America gone insane?

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Has America gone insane?

There's a bigger story involving the Post today -- uh, something about Deep Throat -- but Richard Cohen's column about Paris Hilton (and what she represents) is an eloquent, Frank Rich-like must-read on the state of American culture -- click here. (And see my take on Ms. Hilton here.)

8 Comments:

fetching vapidity. GOLD.

By rachelllllllllllll, at 1:24 PM
I can't help feeling that there is something sad about Paris Hilton, even if she doesn't realize it. Yes, she has lots of money, good looks, etc, but at some point she will get old too (although you probably won't be able to tell because she will have total body reconstruction) and eventually die. And she will have done absolutely nothing in her life. Maybe she really is so shallow that she doesn't care. But maybe she does know and can't really figure out how to make her life meaningful.

I think America's fascinaton with celebrity is not so much with celebrity itself but with the idea that celebrities have no limits. People like Paris and Dennis Rodman can be as outrageous as they want-they have money so who's going to say no. Today, what we have is a society that is totally self-absorbed, that thinks there should be no limits on what someone can do. This is especially true among the younger generations that have grown up with a sense of entitlement and a culture that pretty much says, "all these worlds are yours" (paraphrasing 2001 A Space Odyssey, I believe). The idea that there should be limits was exploded, first, by the sixties which said that no limits on behavior are legitimate and then by the 80s which said greed is good and self-interest is all that matters. Yet, most of these kids find out that, for most people, there are limits,they can't do whatever they want. Then they see celebrities like Paris who never have to grow up, who never have to face limits.

I think this side of celebrity culture is reflected by the lack of savings by people. People think they don't have to save because that is placing some limitation on their immediate gratification. (Obviously, I'm not talking about people that are struggling to make ends meet but people that choose to not save.)

And, then, the phenomenon is reinforced by our culture of self-expression, the idea that everyone has something to say and that everything they do should be shared with the public. Somehow this is thought to be healthy. A few years ago, a child in my daughter's school died of a rare disease. After his death, the family posted a web diary describing their feelings during the various stages of the child's illness and including pictures of the child hooked up to tubes in his hospital bed. I was appalled, but it reflects the idea that nothing should be private, that self-expression is a good in itself no matter how vulgar or inappropriate.

By Marc Schneider, at 1:50 PM
An excellent comment, Marc. I hadn't thought about "celebrity" in terms of limits, but it makes sense.

For me, the celebrity culture is largely about the worship of false gods. People who have nothing beyond themselves to believe in anymore turn to celebrities as their new gods. Those celebrities are somehow perfect, our ideals of what human beings should be: rich, beautiful, popular, sexy, etc. But you're right. It's all hollow. In the end, Paris Hilton will grow old and die -- even Botox won't save her.

But, then, why do people love to see celebrities fall off their lofty perches? Because then we see their humanity, because then we see that they're not that different from the rest of us?

Or that we, too, can be celebrities? When there was God and rest of us, the divide was clear. Now, with celebrities and the rest of us, it isn't. Our gods are us, and we are them. And we can become them, if only briefly, by turning our lives over to some public space, for all to see.

It's interesting, in this sense, how life is like theater. It's hardly new of me to say that we're all actors in the play of life, but what seems to have happened is that our perception of reality has shifted. For some, the virtual world of the internet is the only reality they know. For others, it's the public space as filtered through the media. Somehow, that world is more real than the private worlds we inhabit. Or, at least, we want it to be more real than the worlds we inhabit. That might explain why that family publicized its very private suffering, or why people expose themselves on those wretched daytime talk shows (Geraldo and his ilk).

All interesting stuff. Worth some serious thought. Needless to say, I can't do it justice here. But it's nice that my blog has become such a thought-provoking space. I encourage others to weigh in with their comments on this or any of my other posts. We've gotten some pretty good conversations going.

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