Narcissistic Celebrity Culture and the Danger of Fame in an Echo Chamber

Never ever have I been more fascinated with studying human behavior than when I watched Kanye West part a sea of thousands of people in Chicago last year like he was Moses, or Christ risen, back from the dead. There were throngs of people, en masse, thousands, and he looked over at his bodyguard,who seemed concerned for his safety and said to him, “Watch this. It’s my city,” and he began...directing, parting the sea of people. He was the sheep herder, and they his flock. He, organizing them where he thought they should be and with a wave of his hands, moving them in unison — he was the choir director, and they sang his song. It was mesmerizing to watch a single human move other humans around like this, his power unrestricted and unchallenged with no weapons, except his fame.

But we’ve always had celebrities with cult like followings: Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson , Jay Z, and Kanye, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus for this generation, but these people actually had talent, a unique skill set that merited at least the following of them by people who appreciate their work, their craft, and their ability to entertain and yes, I do believe that Kanye is mega talented.

But with the introduction of reality TV and home made sex tapes from Kim Kardashian, catapulting her into stratospheric levels of stardom we have also redefined what it means to be famous and what celebrating someone really means. Now you can be famous, just for being wealthy; with no particular art form talent or even experience, you can go viral in minutes depending on the degree to which you can produce shock and awe in us.

And now we all want to go viral…we want to BE a virus.

And the problem with many in our generation is we don’t want to do the work to make or create. We can’t wait-we see instant celebrities & distract from our own lives by worshiping & focusing on them so much we no longer know how to, nor do we care to build or create anything ourselves, but instead we sip from the fantasy of going viral by focusing on the instancy of fame and what shock factor we need to get it. Anything goes, and we know it-even murder.

And the ability for anyone to become famous, at any time, for really no significance means that we no longer have to follow the cult leader-we can become the cult leader, if only in our minds.

Because real reality is no longer the mirror on social media that we see, we actually now have filters to filter OUT our reality…

Have a zit that day? Don’t like the extra weight you have?

There’s a filter for that-no worries.

Don’t have enough followers or likes?

Go buy some.

Your merit no longer matters, it’s your ability to be fake that will pay off.

But at what cost? What are we unconsciously teaching ourselves and our children? That at the end of our lives he with the most followers wins?

Look at any child celebrity who’s gotten out of rehab for the umpteenth time-the fame they had could only prop them up & insulate them from the experience of being human for so long. The disillusionment they will face when fame leaves the building will be fierce, and we see it all over their faces, in their eyes, as they splat once again after leaving a treatment center.

The externalization of self we may all participate in by seeking external validation from the cheap and superficial is going to come back for payment due, some day and somehow. All of these plastic surgeries everyone is having to acquire this fake celebrity culture are hopefully being paired with really intensive therapy to define self worth, apart from how they look, but I think no one is thinking, because viruses don’t think.

It’s hard to be IN reality, it can be painful or even just boring and we have trained ourselves to need a click, a scroll, a tap, a hit, a purchase just like any other type of junkie would, it’s just somehow this addiction is not only socially acceptable, it’s encouraged. You can hit pay dirt-just keep plugging away at it.

We have created the monster, and now let’s sit back and make sure we practice managing the false versions of ourselves more than we do creating real ones.

And in reality, many may think they’re influencers, that they’re actually shaping and forming social constructs and moving heavy grids, shifting social change and directing the masses but many are delusional…

They are caught up in the echo chamber of themselves. They’re actually the ones being influenced, being driven- the hamster on the wheel chasing the elusive carrot of fame and relevance they’ve been brainwashed to think they have to have. They think they’re the choir director, when they’re really just a sheep singing what they’ve been conditioned to do.