The subject of celebrity didn't used to interest me much, at least not within itself. It just seemed to be something that was there, not really worth questioning or celebrating.
If I think about it more, it's because things have changed all around. Given a wider array of platforms, famous people are sharing their opinions much more often on average than they used to. And to a creepy extent, they all seem to have the same opinions. You get the occasional outlier, like Evangeline Lilly supporting the Canadian truckers (a gutsy choice, and I wonder if the baffling amount of hate she and her character got when she starred on Lost helped prep her.) But by and large you hear the same things, often the same exact words.
Caitlin Johnstone has noticed this phenomenon as well, and some of the examples she cites are fairly appalling. She has a theory to explain it as well. There is, I'm sure, something to the idea that they've all basically been rewarded by the system, and so are happy to call for more of it. Some of it is simple conformity as well. Once your social circle has been narrowed down to a certain elite set it takes a certain strength of character to refrain from copying them.
It's shortsighted, though. What passes for leftism in the present basically amounts to "what if the Cultural Revolution but corporate-friendly." And when the peasantry is becoming more beset, you may live to regret declaring yourself a Bourbon.
2 comments:
Far too many of these entertainers are so terrified of negative feedback on social media they will kowtow to whatever cause is on the front burner at any particular moment. The question I have is why do they even bother when any chance remark or opinion has the potential of ruining a career, never mind that personal information isn't any business of the public at large. The smart ones have nothing to do with any of it.. whoever they are.
It's also true a number of public figures need constant reinforcement of their fragile egos, especially the older ones who no longer have the ready audiences they got used to having at their peak. Younger performers today seem to believe social media is the best way to promote themselves. It's funny to think that gossip columnists once drove the publicity machines that first made people into celebrities, but it's hard to imagine any of them writing to Hedda Hopper to complain about how they were portrayed. Of course, then libel laws were more likely to be enforced.
Caitlin Johnson is correct in her assessment that 'fame is a self-reinforcing feedback loop of support for establishment power'. Culture used to be understood as unity, but when what passes as culture involves following the dogma of the day I'm not sure what that might be called.
No doubt he spoke the truth when George Carlin said, 'It's a club and you ain't in it'. The danger, as you inferred, is that the peasants can be very handy with pitchforks and their numbers are always greater.
There are a lot of people who'd like to cultivate a reputation for being free and independent. The number who actually want to be free and independent, with all the attendant risk, is much smaller. And you're right, it's very difficult to tell who's smart enough not to fall for it.
It's interesting that you bring up Hedda Hopper. Gossip columnists like her and Walter Winchell could be very vicious. On the other hand, the cutting quality tended to be somewhat performative. They were part of the show as much as anyone. As it turns out, the real damage is done by quasi-anonymous Twitter users and your own peers. It is disappointing when older artists join the mob and become censorious. At times I wonder if they want to be remembered as the last generation with creative freedom.
There have been cultures with very strict taboos before, of course. It might even be part of the definition. But in the past these strictures were based on and tempered by the real physical and social needs of the people. When the laws are being laid down by people who think that personal contact is optional or by definition harmful, there's very little you can count on.
Carlin's instincts tended to be pretty good. I think we've found out over the past couple of years that elites are open to the idea of herding the populace like livestock. But also that much of the population rebels at that treatment. This last part is a good thing.
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