When Moses brought down the word telling the Israelites how to lead exemplary lives one of the top ten was to stop the worship of graven images. NO MORE IDOLS for the masses. In those days that was an edict fairly easy to execute because the golden calf didn’t have a publicist and there were no hoards of reporters ready to report on their every hanging participle.
“Methinks she doth protest too much” said one of Shakespeare’s characters concerning the another’s protestations of denial. It has been suggested that perhaps the same could be said for our newest idols. That those individuals who decry the intrusion in their lives the loudest by the masses of paparazzi are those most desirous of said attention.
How many of us get paid fifteen million dollars for six to eight weeks work of being ourselves? How many of us have a publicist who issues statements about whether or not we have a girlfriend? Do you honestly believe that people who consider it necessary to hire someone to issue statements about their personal lives are not courting the attention they claim to despise?
The argument could be made that the press have made such accoutrements essential. That in order to maintain some vestige of control these people are forced into the position of having their lives filtered through press releases. By giving out tidbits they are able to keep the feeding frenzy to a minimum and maintain some semblance of privacy in otherwise public lives.
But there’s where the dichotomy starts to rear it’s ugly little head. Haven’t these “idols” by their very seeking to obtain that status come to a tacit agreement that their lives are for public consumption? When people like a Mr. Cruise and a Ms. Diaz protest, both who have recently made headlines for their complaints about the media, who are they appealing to for sympathy?
Having carefully constructed careers conditional upon public adoration: the more that people lay out shekels to worship their image the higher the wattage of their star power, what did they expect? That they could shut off what they had created? With the worship comes the heightened expectations and demands.
They couldn’t have been blind to past history. One only need to look at the lengths people have gone to obtaining relics from previous stars. Those who buy sweat stained pieces of Elvis’ scarves with all the devotion shown to a shard of the true cross surely must have prepared you for what was in store?
Article comments
1 - Ernesto
Whether or not these modern "idols" (nicley apt Old Testament metaphor, by the way) are setting themselves up for the sort of treatment they get from the public, their choices, good, bad or otherwise, can hardly justify bad behavior on the part of the press or public. To follow your metaphor out a bit: the biblical prohibition against idol worship wasn't directed at the idols, it was directed at the people who might worship those idols.