The modern and meaningless cult of mindless, western celebrity figures



By Stanley Collymore

Quite seriously what on earth inexplicably conspires to cause

supposedly ordinary individuals and even collectively as

well large numbers of people to wantonly dessert all

apparent commonsensical notions of behaviour

that one would normally have expected them

to indulge in and cheerfully in their place

stupidly affix their devoted and clearly

committed loyalties to the manifestly

ostentatiously misleading but all the same alluring mast

of the generalized, massively harebrained, customarily

contrived, invariably cynically, and the methodically

manipulatively orchestrated by others measurably

self-centredly induced versions of what in their

delusional perceptions ought to establish and

consequently must suit their rather skewed

interpretation of what celebrity status is

all about and who accordingly should

either appreciatively be permitted to

join or else be mockingly debarred

from the ranks of this noticeably

artificial and unscientifically

based observation of theirs

as to who is or shouldn’t

be graded as a celebrity

status man or woman?

An entirely and unreservedly irrational loss of reason

that is itself abysmally inculcated and furthermore

intuitively followed up by a mindless and quite

noticeably an explicit and decidedly uncaring

unawareness of or else the irresponsible and

deliberate discarding of either all or most

of the tried and tested aspects that have

favourably, genuinely and enduringly

stood the rigorous test of time and

in the process of doing so confidently ensured that

the crucial and salutary interests of all mankind

would be and did substantially stand in good

stead. Or instead, or am I to wonder, ought

these commendable qualities to now be

needlessly abandoned and no longer

deemed as important assets much

less so be viewed as indispensable ones to the

conscientiously ongoing, apt and progressive

enhancement of human kind; while those

with unintelligibly and unwarrantedly

substantial influence constantly do

their level best to either profane

every thing that’s esoteric, or

else transparently resort to

circumscribing anything

that rewardingly could

be beneficial to even

the most obdurately

ill-informed mind!

© Stanley V. Collymore

29 March 2016.

Author’s Observations:

The word celebrity certainly has a long, very old and prestigious pedigree that goes back to the Latin word celebritas which was itself derived from an earlier Latin word celeber which was preceded by celebr whose meaning was “frequented or honoured.” And down the ages these words passed into old French as cebebrite, and specifically because of the extremely close and enduring linguistic links which existed and still do between the English language and French and characteristically cemented primarily as a direct result of the 1066 Norman invasion, conquest and settlement first of England and later the entirety of the British Isles the word we’re discussing here predictably made its way into the integrated Anglo-Saxon dialect as celebrity.

In contemporary English however the word celebrity commonly refers to a famous person and particularly so someone or persons involved in entertainment or sport and who are thus regarded as being known of by many people. But what are the true characteristics either of or correspondingly for the word famous? Interestingly enough no reference in that specific generalization is ever consciously made about these individuals’ intrinsic worth or lack of it as human beings, which I would have thought should have been fundamental characteristics that were genuinely requisite for anyone to possess that was considered whoever by as truly worthy of the definitions celebrity and famous.

Alas however that certainly isn’t the case even when celebrity and famous can both turn out at times to be a most awkward and even a hugely problematical double-edged sword which can be dreadfully troublesome for those who’re directly involved. For like the reverse side of a coin famous and celebrity have their flipsides as well with the words infamous and non-celebrity firmly embedded there and which can and do often sit uneasily and discomfitingly with the frequent and fatuous acclamation that is profusely and rather unwarrantedly given to those who were irresponsibly and brainlessly hailed as incontestably famous or eminent celebrity figures. And the name Jimmy Savile immediately comes to mind although he was by no means the only such person regrettably still alive or thankfully dead as he now is that appropriately and unquestionably falls into that flawed category, shall we charitably say, of universally applauded and dementedly lauded famous personalities and celebrities.

Even so the fundamental and still unresolved conundrum, although a number of conjectural hypotheses have at times been put forward for this ongoing state of affairs, is precisely why is it that so many people globally, but most particularly so in the west, are so evidently and intransigently mesmerized by as well as infernally and addictively hooked on this celebrity status cult obsession of significantly and more often than not exceedingly irrationally hero-worshipping other mortal human beings; and besides doing so unhesitatingly and without a solitary moment’s thought or any consideration whatsoever in relation to factoring into that puerile and unthinking equation of theirs any attentive regard for the intrinsic human worth or inestimable moral value system or otherwise of those whom they’ve inanely and most self-indulgently placed atop of the pedestals usually built on the shifting sands of populous and capricious public opinion that they and others have self-satisfyingly erected at the time to their inglorious but wannabe “immortalized” celebrity heroes?

And I ask myself: “How can anyone be so entirely lacking in self-worth that the only pride which they think they can realistically achieve and revel in is through the deluded notion of hero-worshipping someone else? Acknowledging that person’s capabilities is one thing but hero-worshipping them to the point of idiotic fixation? Sorry to disappoint but that doesn’t, never has or will it ever work for me! Not even in an inveterately class-obsessed and social climbing, cap-doffing Britain.”