That bitch, Fame
Jun. 1st, 2009 01:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonThe news from London of Susan Boyle's meltdown and hospitalization has made me very sad. I was afraid of something like this ever since I realized what a simple soul she was, how very protected she'd been from the hurly burly of the world. Many of us clung to her story in elation, projecting onto her underdog beating of the odds our own needs and aspirations. Then the news media picked it up and made her the center of a frenzy. Not everyone is equipped to deal with that kind of chaos, and I suspect Ms. Boyle was much more fragile than anyone supposed.
The world loves to adore people, to build them up, to project onto, to elevate beyond any human being's ability to sustain. Almost inevitably, when the public scrutiny discovers their fatal flaw, many seem to take great glee in exploiting that, picking and picking until the person at the center of it reacts—often badly, but always in a human way. But we don't want human idols. We want them to be gods living amongst us, personifications of the myths we project upon them.
And so we tear them down again. We, us, not just the news media. The news media is just the public voice of the mob zeitgeist. They would not exist in the form they currently do if we did not watch their programs, read their web sites, buy their papers and magazines. Us. We. Me.
I hope that Ms. Boyle can find her way clear of this, that she can at least realize a part of her dream. I fear that we won't let her, but I am praying that we do.
The world loves to adore people, to build them up, to project onto, to elevate beyond any human being's ability to sustain. Almost inevitably, when the public scrutiny discovers their fatal flaw, many seem to take great glee in exploiting that, picking and picking until the person at the center of it reacts—often badly, but always in a human way. But we don't want human idols. We want them to be gods living amongst us, personifications of the myths we project upon them.
And so we tear them down again. We, us, not just the news media. The news media is just the public voice of the mob zeitgeist. They would not exist in the form they currently do if we did not watch their programs, read their web sites, buy their papers and magazines. Us. We. Me.
I hope that Ms. Boyle can find her way clear of this, that she can at least realize a part of her dream. I fear that we won't let her, but I am praying that we do.