The Fallacy of Fame

American Historian Daniel Boorstin  said - “Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous, but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety. The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.”

There are often "famous" people in the media receiving attention for  bad behavior or breaking the law. I find it insulting that a "famous" person can often get away with a "slap on the wrist" for disrespect, hostility, and violence. Those people might be performers, media moguls, or professional athletes and our young people look up to them. There is something wrong when our society becomes obsessed over celebrities and their lives. "The celebrity is nothing but a person of celebrity, famous for being famous," as Gregory D. Foster puts it.

There are a handful of people in the public eye who accomplish great things and give to those in need, but often the "giving" is another media display. Instead of giving kudos to the celebrity for what he or she has done, look around at the real heroes and praise them. That person who faces adversity and danger, yet displays self-sacrifice for others in need, those are the real heroes.

Gregory D. Foster professor at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, National Defense University says we need heroes today because, "despite our self-deluding sense of superiority as a country--you know, world's only superpower and all that--we are less than we could be as individuals and as a people. Ultimately that's what heroes do for us: They make us mere mortals want to be better." As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed: "Great men exist that there may be greater men."


Do not "lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous, but are famous because they are great."

Check out Gregory D. Foster's website by clicking on the link below.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0723-20.htm