Origin Story: Celebrity?
At what point does one join the pack in believing/creating “celebrity”? At what point does one break free from the pack into “celebrity”? It’s completely a human construct, yet why are multitudes blindly engaged in the story of ‘us & them’? It’s so disempowering to buy into that story. When working on media projects involving celebrities, it's crazy common to see people make fools of themselves for buying into the construct (my affectionate term: "Muppets"), thinking they are in fact getting closer to their goal. Yet celebrity has been around since we invented the 'hero' (oral history, cave paintings, carvings).
Why do we vault certain individuals to demigod status when they're still regular flesh-and-blood human beings? And once that happens, why are so many humans ravenous for their attention (and look really silly in the process)? Do we 'need' celebrities and the individuals willing to assume the role? If so, why do we eventually demonize them for human-scale missteps in a ravenous-mob-of-cannibals kind of way? Love to hear your thoughts.