Pseudo people

Paris Hilton. Lindsey Lohan. Brittany Spears.

These are just three of many I call pseudo people, people who are more image than reality. Put another way, they are famous for being famous.

Over the last century or so, our fast-paced media system and our desire for heroes, has led to confusion between image and reality. No longer is it easy to know who is important and who isn’t, what is important and what isn‘t.

During the 20th century, we have come to be ruled by our extravagant expectations of what the world holds and our power to shape it. By harboring, nourishing and enlarging our extravagant expectations, we create the demand for illusions to deceive ourselves. We expect anything and everything n the contradictory and the impossible: compact cars that are spacious; diets that are easy; the ability to be kind and competitive at the same time.

Think about it. We have come to believe we can shape the world, make heroes when they don’t exist, fabricate national purposes when we lack them and pursue those purposes after we have fabricated them.

Once upon a time news was what God n divine Providence n decided was news. Twentieth century man (and now 21st) creates it himself. I give you a press conference, an interview or a news leak. All seem important but don’t have to be. This has led us to the creation of pseudo-events, events that are not spontaneous; that are planted primarily for the purpose of being reported; whose relation to the reality of the situation is ambiguous, and whose existence is usually intended as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The past was the habitat of great men. Of heroes. Men like Martin Luther, Leonardo DaVinci, Charles Lindberg. Now, I fear, heroes are a thing of the past. This has occurred because the rise of social sciences has led us to doubt any person’s true greatness because of increased emphasis on social forces rather than individuals. And let’s not forget the rise of the critical biography. God help anyone famous who dies. That person will be torn down just because he was famous for whatever he accomplished.

Now we have manufactured heroes n celebrities. Manufactured entities well known for being well known. A celebrity’s relation to reality, just like a pseudo-event, is often highly ambiguous. This is much better suited to our times because, unlike God, who creates heroes only now and again, man mass produces celebrities. We fabricate fame.

Back to Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan. Brittany Spears. And others like Princess Di and John Kennedy Jr. When Kennedy Jr. died, the media covered his tragic death 24/7, day after day. It was not the big story of the day; it was the ONLY story. Question is, why? Lots of people died that week, but only John Jr. got that media treatment. Did he deserve that amount of news simply because he was the son of a former president? I say no.

The week Princess Diane died, another famous person died. Unfortunately, that person didn’t receive near the amount of media coverage as the Princess Di. The person was Mother Teresa, who I believe was a modern-day hero who deserved much more media than the princess, a celebrity.

I realize Princess Diane used her fame to fight against AIDs as well as other good causes, but her fame extended to her messy divorce, her not-so-perfect private life. Yet many people, those who still lay flowers where she died, view her as a hero, not someone famous for being famous, someone whose greatness was largely manufactured.

Increasingly, we see that almost anyone can become a celebrity. All he or she needs to do is figure out a way to get in the news and stay there. Take one relatively talentless individual, sprinkle in news coverage, add water (or preferably, booze), and poof, instant celebrity. Then the media tell us all about their personal habits rather than there accomplishments, and we have created Paris Hilton, known for being a what? (I’ll leave it at “what,” lest I get sued.)

So what are we left with? A world that often prefers vivid image to shallow pale reality.

But before you blame the media for all this, remember one thing. The media are businesses, and businesses usually give us what we want.