Being A Celebrity, For Whatever Reason

MOST AMERICANS roll their eyes at our bizarre celebrity culture, even while enabling it. Wasn't it Andy Warhol who gave us all fifteen minutes of fame? If you haven't had yours, be patient, your time will come. Millions of celebrities, closely observed by tens of millions of voyeurs. Our celebrities, it has been suggested, are our psychological replacements for a pantheon of forbidden gods. We erect statues to celebrities, and enshrine their names on walls and sidewalks. Our need is so great that we have created an entirely new class of celebrities, consisting of people who are famous...for being famous. Whatever happened to Paris Hilton? So, anyway, a disgusted and percipient college student decided to run his own little experiment. He would create a celebrity - out of himself. Normally a laid back down dressing T shirt kind of guy, he got dressed to the nines; fancy duds, sunglasses, big hair, the whole nine yards, and got together a few of his buds, to serve as body guards, hangers on, and paparazzi. What is a celebrity without hangers on and paparazzi? Out on the town, mid town Manhattan, they went, the entourage strutting through Times Square like they owned the place, flash bulbs a blazin'. He used his real name, and just acted...important. you already know what happens next. People started noticing. Teen aged girls starting joining the procession, giggling and screaming. "We love UUU!" Crowds gathered. Someone asked him whether he might be so and so. Yes, he said, I am indeed the very celebrity you named. Autograph signing ensued. Having proven his point, that anyone can be a celebrity merely by acting like one, he soon realized how much he was enjoying the attention, and he became reluctant to relinquish it. So, he didn't, He kept it up, for awhile, until it came time to rejoin the world of reality, and go back to class. He reported that upon his return to Earth as a normal person, he felt a tremendous let down. Hollow, diminished, unwhole. But at least, he understood the allure. Celebrities like being celebrities..to a point. People need attention and approval. Had he continued much longer, he would probably have discovered that a time comes when privacy is required, but unavailable. He would have discovered that celebrity is it own trap, and that one ends up frequently flipping the bird, and hiding. Had he stayed with it just a shade longer, he would have purged himself of his emotional hangover. It may become necessary for him to dress back up, gather together his underlings, go back out on the town, do it all over again, and complete the process.