But being gifted with a certain talent does not mean we have to bow down in homage. I'm much more admiring of a scientist who makes a ground-breaking discovery than an actor playing whatever his or her next paying role is.
Most of us love sport, so no criticism of any sportsperson here; but they're not that important in our lives. It only feels as if they are. I guess because, like actors in movies, they carry our hopes and feel like kind of mirror of who we are.
But Lebron James is not more important to humankind than any of the top hundred scientists. An actor has, first, a writer's script, then the entire film crew working to ensure his or her performance lifts to the necessary level. And if you're a movie star getting paid $20 million a movie, then you have to find and even exceed that highest level.
But, as Marlon Brando once put it: "It's only acting. We're not that important."
If the Kardashians are more famous than scientists saving millions of lives with their research and subsequent new medicines and technology, then we're all culturally less for it.
The Economist article suggests celebrity status is part of the job requirement for an actor. Not so a scientist. It's a poor argument, as "celebrity" is a concept put in our minds. It is a notion "sold" to the public by marketing people fully aware that humankind has an inate need to elevate anyone who reflects them, plays a role they identify with, or entertains exceptionally.
Actors satisfy fantasy; allow a very ordinary person to become, for just a couple hours, heroic, noble, courageous, tragic, even dead. As long as he/she got the girl/guy, revenge, the prize, or achieved the goal first. Most of all, the fantasy is complete when the actor, through his/her skills and emotional conveyance, makes Joe and Jacinta Ordinary feel admired and loved by the whole world.
Hollywood doesn't keep for long any actor who has lost the public's adoration. No. It's the Trump treatment: "You're fired." Hollywood and the media feed off this celebrity machine. The elevator that takes an actor to the penthouse suite is the same going to the basement. At least in sport many stars have a meal ticket for life.
Celebrity is so un-Kiwi. Give us the Richies and Dans and all our aw-shucks, yeah-no modest, even shy, Olympic athletes. Or hugely successful business people who shun the public spotlight. And when the last movie has been made, the last TV drama series has shocked and enthralled us in the final episode of the final season, scientists will still be searching the heavens trying to unlock the mystery of our beginnings.
We need scientists to peer, probe, test, and measure everything. Someone popping a ball into a hoop, a ball into a hole, a net, between upright goalposts, doesn't shift humanity much. Brilliant scientific minds do the heavy lifting behind the scenes. If the Kardashians are more famous than scientists saving millions of lives with their research and subsequent new medicines and technology, then we're all culturally less for it.
Happy New Year.
