I saw the above cartoon and broke out laughing. But the more I thought about it, the more disturbed I got. The author has hit on something - the language of social media is the language of religion.
I noted before that one of the interesting things my brother did on his way to his PhD in puppetry, was to do a thesis for his masters in theater history on how the language of professional wrestling is that of theater - and not sport. In sports, we have practice, we have the ring or the gridiron or the playing field. In sports we have uniforms and locker rooms.
In professional wrestling - as in theater, we have rehearsals, we have the stage, we have costumes, and we have dressing rooms. It is interesting how language can subtly define things. And as part of his research, he went to a professional wrestling event and they took him backstage beforehand and showed him all the tricks of the trade, and admitted - as all professional wrestling people do - that it was all clever fakery. This is not to say people don't get hurt - they do, when something goes wrong. The wrestling people don't advertise that it is fake, but will admit to it, for legal reasons (for example, if people are dumb enough to gamble on the outcomes, which are pre-determined).
But it is the language angle that fascinated me. And in social media, it is interesting how we are exhorted to "follow" people on Facebook, and "like and subscribe" on Youtube. People follow celebrities as well as social media celebrities just as they follow religions. And perhaps religions gave us the first celebrities.
I noted before that it seems to be a human need for people to elevate one of us above them. Dictators, celebrities, superstars, political leaders and whatnot do not achieve power by forcing it upon us, but by us elevating them. Even Hitler had legions of followers - which is how he achieved power in the first place. Even after he reduced Germany (and most of Europe) into a smoking ruin, there were still people who "believed" in him, and indeed, there are still some today, oddly enough, in the United States. There are still people in Russia today, who worship Stalin.
Almost every religion - perhaps all of them - has some celebrity figure that people follow. Christians have their Jesus, Muslims have their Mohammed, Jews have, well a plethora of old-testament figures (collect them all!) particularly Moses. And if you challenge the authenticity of any of these figures or mock them, you will generate a world of hate. For some people, celebrities are the ultimate "don't go there" and religious celebrities particularly so.
So what's the point? Well, for starters, I think we are creating a religion out of celebrity - and celebrities out of religion. People literally worship their favorite movie or rock stars - an ersatz religion of sorts. In an era where fewer and fewer people are regular churchgoers, perhaps celebrities are our new Gods - a polytheism for the new era. Just as the Romans - and the Greeks before them - had multiple Gods to pray to for various forms of relief, today we have various celebrities to satisfy the need for worship in different parts of our lives, or for different people of different bents.
And as for religion, we have created celebrities out of religious figures - Jesus Christ, Superstar. I guess I never understood the title of that Broadway show (and later, movie) but he was really the first superstar. Abandon your plethora of pagan Gods - and worship one Superstar!
But in recent years, poor old Jesus has been hijacked as a celebrity endorser of political figures and even products. People posit that Jesus endorses Trump, for example, and they are deadly serious about this. Jesus has been morphed and molded to fit the views of people who would never embrace his real message of peace and suffering on behalf of mankind. In their minds, Jesus is a professional wrestler who is coming back with a vengeance - taking names and kicking ass, preferably with his holy AR-15.
That doesn't sound like Jesus, but that is what they have made of him.
I guess the scary thing about all forms of celebrity worship is that it is a way of putting your brain in neutral and letting someone else drive. A celebrity is accused of doing something horrible, and people will still "believe" and "follow" that celebrity, right to hell. Caitlin Jenner slammed her Escalade into a row of cars and killed one poor lady, but her followers will claim to their dying breath it was an "accident." Myself, having seen the video, wonders why someone towing a trailer would be tailgating - but that's just me.
Similarly, there are Michael Jackson fans who, to this day, defend him to the death. I mean, even if you can assume all the legal cases against him are unfounded, the shear weirdness should be a wake-up call to mindless followers. Ditto for "Prince" who some claim is the greatest guitarist ever - notwithstanding Jimmy Hendrix - but I cannot for the life of me recall a single guitar riff in "Raspberry Buffet" or whatever other songs he did, that was of note.
Again, a good publicist can make you forget all those messy details.
I am not sure what the point of all this is, other than if you are a rabid "fan" of a celebrity, you are a very, very sad person, because you are trading in a life of your own to merely live in the shadow of someone else - who is manipulating you to their own end, to your detriment.
Fuck celebrity.
