A Fish Story
There is a great story from a book by Cass Sunstein. An old fish was swimming and came upon some young fish, and he said, “How’s it going, boys?” How’s the water? They mumbled something and continued swimming for a time until one of them looked at the other and said, “What the heck is water?” The point being that, because water was what they lived and breathed all day, they took it for granted and never bothered to think about context within which they operated (swam).
If you could pick up the fish and lift them into the air, they might notice that they have been living in something called water. They may be able to tell the difference between water and land. Perhaps they can learn something simply by being made aware of their surroundings.
On a daily basis, we all do this to some extent. We are so caught up in our daily routines that we never think about why we are doing what we are doing. We do not consider our surroundings. It has been accepted. With this and other topics, I ask the simple question, “Why?”
Why do we care what celebrities think?
Celebrity culture is harmful to our society in subtle and obvious ways. Obvious, because we all, on some level, are aware of the superficial nature of the culture we so admire. Subtle, as few of us consider, “Why do we care what celebrities think?”
We should not put celebrities on a pedestal because, while they might be talented, they contribute only that which entertains. Lets delve deeply into the motivations behind why we care, who we care about, and what it says about us.
Plutarch’s Sulla
The first time I considered this topic was while reading about Sulla in Plutarch’s Lives. He was a general and political leader at the end of the Roman Republic. There was a passage that told how the roman aristocrats looked down on him because he was friends with actors. Evidently, he spent time having banquets and fun with actors, which they thought much beneath him. I took a few Great Courses covering different time frames, and this notion of actors and athletes being in a lower rung of society came up again and again.
Many comments on this and other aspects of humanity, such as being skilled at a hobby, were beneath these aristocrats. This is intriguing because actors and athletes clearly had their place in the world which is nothing like today. When I read a passage, the thought came to me, “Why would they feel that way about actors and athletes?” The exploration of this change combined with the cause of celebrity in the modern world is the basis for the topic. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0064
Outrage over celebrity comments
Many well-known athletes or actors make headlines for their remarks, for good or ill. There was one such incident involving international affairs when this topic was conceived. I read about the uproar and began to realize why people of bygone eras relegated athletes and actors to certain places. “How would this guy know the first thing about _____ topic?” I wondered.
He does things with a ball. Why would anyone be upset by his remarks, or why would anyone be pleased by them? What does that have to do with this person, their skill set, background, knowledge, or even interests outside their sport? I don’t’ enjoy reading stupid comments, but if I got upset each time someone said something dumb or that I disagreed with, I would have an aneurism.
Oh, but there was outrage at the comments and subsequent comments. Reprehensible! How could they? People read motive after motive into this situation and were generally up in arms. From the stories that ran, I never heard anyone ask, “Why do we care?” I never heard anyone cover that angle. Not from the tabloids or the most prominent publications or commentators to the fans or anyone else. It was simply left out of the conversation as though it were taken for granted that we would all care.
Why do we care?
Is caring about celebrities our “water in that fish story”? No one ever stops to think, “Why do I care?” They do things with balls, make music, or read lines for a camera. No one ever seems to take a step back and consider why we care. Or, whom do we care about?
While this may seem trivial, it is important subject to consider at it speaks volumes about our priorities. We have celebrities from all walks of life commenting on issues ranging from social issues to pets to the ocean, etc.
Aside from activist issues, celebrities market and sell a wide range of products. The question I ask is this: Why do we value these people so much? Do they deserve this exalted position in our world? If so, why? Why do we also expect and demand commentary from them on issue after issue? Are they really going to have expert opinions? A better question is: from which celebrities do we expect opinions? Is it all of them?
We only care about the best of the best
Whose opinion are we concerned with? Think about this very carefully. Of all types of celebrities; which famous people do you care about? Is it all of them? Was a person listed in the top four or five on the script? If you break this down, you do not buy products from a supporting actor who made a movie back in 1990. You do not pay attention to the comments of the 3rd string running back for the Miami Dolphins, nor do you care what the practice squad quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers has to say about anything….at all. Do you even know who these people are?
Of course the answer is no. We do not pay much attention to a B movie actor. We could care less about the recording artist with 2,000 views online. Little money would be raised to support a cause of some self published author with book sales in the thousands? Yes but why does this matter?
We only care about the Elite
First and foremost, the people you care about are elite. And by “elite,” I mean “elite of the elite.” Consider this: the NCAA currently estimates that the chances of high school football players competing in Division 1 are 2.9%. 2.9%, or 73k, of over 1 million pupils will play Division 1 football and that is just college! The same statistics apply to basketball: 1.0% of 540k will play in college.
The NCAA also provides statistics on players who move to professional levels. Only 254 (or 1.6%) of the 73k will play professional football. In basketball, we are down to 1.2% of athletes who will play in the NBA, but there are approximately 21%, or 4K, who will play in other leagues.
https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx
Actors
Hollywood, makes it harder to find decent statistics. Comparing numbers between the Actors Equity Association and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) one finds an average salary for an actor around 17 dollars an hour, and 14% of all actors employed in a given year. Most people “in Hollywood” have other jobs and do not claim “actor” as their official occupation, nor can they if they never make any money acting.
Take a sample year; there were roughly 11k speaking parts handed out creating a small pool to draw from for our “care” factor. The people paid as actors are unknown to us for the most part. How many people can we consider to be actually “famous”? A very small number indeed, and of those, not all make comments of any kind about what we are discussing here.
Musicians and authors
A similar process is true for all musicians within the same hierarchy. Authors might have a bit more of a chance to make a “decent” living, but odds are again against you. For example, of the 330,000 books published in the United States last year, how many can you name? How many authors can you mention off the top of your head? How many successful authors were overnight successes and got their book published at the first meeting? Most have a litany of horror stories about difficulties getting their books published.
Even if you are talented, the odds of you becoming a celebrity are very small. And of those who can make a go of it, there are an even smaller number of people who can break into that top tier. The tier of people we care about.
What does it take to make it to the top?
“So why does it matter?”, you say. I already knew it was hard to break into show business or to become an athlete. It matters because we are talking about a very small number of people, the elite. Inorder to get to the top, you have to be AMAZING and put in an incredible amount of work sacrificing much else in life.
An elite anything requires countless hours of training and dedication. The ability to feel the slightest difference in a racket, ever so slight, or a ball weighing a few ounces less, or the slightest change in a swing, or how a move is executed. Hitting that 10,000 hour rule Malcom Gladwell wrote about and beyond. These people have dedicated their lives to an all-consuming passion for their craft. The most successful people put in insane hours, and this is true in all areas of celebrity.
Oh but Dave, insert objections here
Now, you cynical person, you say, “I already knew that it took time, sacrifice, and dedication.” Ok. But think about this. That person, whether an Olympic athlete or singer, has devoted themselves almost exclusively to their craft at the expense of all else. Read the routines these people have on a daily basis.
An article about Tom Cruise’s preparation for one aspect of Interview with the Vampire can be found at the link below. He practiced every day for an hour and a half for five weeks. This was for a few scenes totaling one or two minutes of screen time!
Their dedication is all-consuming
None of this is to say they lack intelligence, but being a master of one trade means you are not in many other parts of life. Since we only care about the elite, knowing what it takes for them to become elite, what does this say about us? We are placing a lot of stock in the opinions of anomalies, for sure, but anomalies who are laymen almost everything outside their craft.
I know you will mention that X celebrity went to college or that the guy from “Offspring” has a PhD and that X person is very intelligent. I do not presume to discount that, but you and I know that those are the outliers. Even if someone happens to be a Rhodes Scholar or possess a doctorate, they will, at most, have two fields of expertise. Two, not all. They are certainly not covering all the areas on which they are looked to for commentary and guidance. Lastly, were they going to that school at the same time they made their ascent? I doubt it.
On any other topic, they are no longer elite and most likely not above average. How could they be? Essentially, their opinion on the other matters is the same as anyone else’s. Except that, maybe they look a lot cooler while stating that opinion. This is why we should stop caring what celebrities say about most matters unrelated to their craft. It is, despite that person’s best intentions, a layman’s opinion.
Summary
Why do we care what celebrities think will be concluded in the next post out soon. But before you leave, consider what was discussed:
Why do we care about the opinions, the lifestyle etc.. of these people?
Why do we put so much stock in what they say?
Do we care about every athlete or entertainer?
Why does it matter?
Is it possible is has far more to do with you and I than them?