I used to be very intent on becoming famous, making something of myself, being cheered by all. Now with society as it is and what I see famous people doing, I'm not so sure. OJ Simpson is tried for murder and is more famous than any volunteer workers or real heroes out there. Unfortunately in the world we live in, good deeds are not rewarded with fame, but bad ones often are.
I know many people feel the same way I do: I recently saw a bulletin board in front of a building with a sign written in marker, "Stop making stupid people famous." It's a very concise statement that gets at the heart of the problem: consumers of news and television and media who click on stories about people doing stupid things because they're "cool," or it's enticing to watch, for whatever reason, the world (and in particular Americans) are attracted to bad acts, whether it be murders, celebrity divorces, scandals, etc. The news agencies and advertising companies latch on to consumer tendencies and feature what viewers want to watch, and thus give money and even more attention to bad acts. It's a vicious cycle that promotes people doing bad things to get attention, and diverts attention from people who are doing great things out in the world. Think about the news articles: "If it bleeds, it leads...." therefore, murders and crimes dominate the headlines, and sometimes (like this past week) mass shootings and speculation as to why the Las Vegas killers (don't want to perpetuate his name to give him more attention) did what he did, no motive. It's been a mystery all week how he did all this killing himself and pulled off one of the biggest mass murders in U.S. history, and here's a radical theory: Maybe he's doing it for the attention! He knew he'd become (infamous) even if he died and be given more attention than anything that he could have done alive in the real world, so he went for the path of evil. It's not a completely impossible thought: there are people so obsessed with fame, (even more than 20-year-old Robert trying to get on reality TV) that they'd kill to do it. Some news outlets will not publicize the killer's name sometimes for the exact reason of not giving the killer what he wants (fame and recognition), but in the case of the Las Vegas killer everyone flocked to know more about him, even his weird Filipino girlfriend and brother became famous because of him.
And unfortunately, our society allows the equation of fame = money to be true. Given the new advances of Youtube and the internet, everyone can become a star now, and they know that attention means ad dollars and getting jobs and building a "brand," and "brand" means business. People are abandoning their dreams of leading a nice career, getting a good education starting from the bottom and going up the ladder like back in the day by looking for a shortcut, in the form of fame. It's a lot more thrilling (and takes less time) for someone to try to make a bunch of videos and do a bunch of stunts in hopes one of them goes viral and gets them some attention, sounds much easier than going to medical school or law school or business school, and society eats it up, people will "tweet it out." Given the technical advances and automation taking over jobs, fame might be the last stronghold of human labor: machines can't create fame themselves, humans have the human personality to captivate audiences.
It's this growing hunger to become famous, though, that hides the real heroes. I just started reading the book "I am Malala" by the young Pakistani student who was shot by the Taliban, and it's a riveting book about living in Taliban-dominated lands and escaping and trying to free places from terrorism and oppression through education. The lady has a better soul as a teenager than most of us do as adults who are just worrying about their next paycheck or what kind of fancy car they want to drive, it's a selfless story of giving back to a community, a real real model, yet more people want to listen to Justin Bieber is going to do Saturday night. It's a real shame that our role models thrust before everyone are these fame-seeking people who are famous because they want to be famous (kind of like a bubble economy where stocks are driven up by expectations but not really any substance) while the real, overlooked, underrated people of the world get less and less attention. And if people start getting desperate for attention, they might do some weird stuff like the mass shootings, or offer racist messages.
Stop making stupid people famous. Start rewarding good people with fame. Maybe we should just change our news cycle: put the good stories at the top. Put who the President fired and any political sex scandals at the end. Murders, deaths go after hero sacrifices and great stories of volunteers helping the needy. In this way the vicious cycle of fame-seeking and people yearning for news of bad stuff happening to other people will end.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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