by John Tonner

Created on: March 05, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

" Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?" (Socrates)

Will there be a backlash against celebrities?. Well before even attempting to answer such a question, some definition of how we define celebrity seems appropriate. The word Celebrity itself stems from the Latin adjective celeber meaning famous or celebrated. In turn the mass celebration of someone would indicate a level of fame, or at least infamy. Traditionally fame or celebrity was linked with doing or achieving something. Countless examples exist thoroughout history whether it be the brazen celebrity of Oscar Wilde, the unconquerable youth and success of Alexander The Great, or the timeless beauty of Marilyn Monroe. Note while these individuals were famous for certain attributes, converesely this fame was based on actually doing or arguably achieving something.

In the present day the mass media is seemingly awash with the relatively new concept of the overnight or, apparently plucked from obscruity celebrity. Jade and Pete from Big Brother, Jordan, Paris Hilton, Abi Titmuss and coutless others which can now, so we're told be charted on a sliding a to z scale of celebrity. The flotsam and jetsam of daily living, seemingly have a permanent page in the daily tabloids . Countless broadsheets and innumerable social commentators despair and bemoan the breakdown of society, cite the empty celebration of nothing and generally point the proverbial figure. Yet are human beings really new to the celebration of vacuous, talentless celebs?. At this point it is important to know your history, for example Dickens talked of writing in the era of the culture vacum. Moreover in those supposedly halcyon days, when everyone who was famous deserved their staring role, what exactly did Christine Keeler do?. Taking it even further by today's standards in terms of notoriety Jack the Ripper could arguably be called a celebrity. Add to that at will Jeffery Damer, Charles Manson, Hitler and so on. Ok maybe I am taking it to an extreme but the point still stays. Perhaps best to illustrate, Christine Keeler famous in her day for unsavory means, compare and contrast with Abi Titmuss. An unknown nurse who going out with a minor television celebrity, makes a porno tape which is apparently stolen and put on the worldwide web for the all and sunder to see, viola a star is born. What gets me is when the celebs making these porno tapes claim they are stolen and distrubuted. Yeah so hardened, desperate criminals break into a celebrity household a potential jackpot of swag, and say "let's go for the video's first lads". In conclusion then is there going to be a celebrity backlash? essentially no. That is not when we collectively keep reading the daily
trivialities of a motley crue of non-entities. Not when Big Brother's ratings are inexplicitly soaring. So next time you ask yourself is ther going to be a celebrity backlash ask yourself do you read the magazines, watch the tv shows, consume the tabloids? If the answer is a resounding yes - ask yourself who's really to blame?

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