[National Review] Once upon a time, actors, musicians, and other entertainers were considered riff-raff, something like what a contemporary American snob might sneer at as carnies.
That was, in that respect at least, a more civilized time.
In our time, we have made demigods of entertainers. Human beings are very status-driven creatures (this is almost certainly an evolved trait rather than a learned behavior), and so it is probably inevitable that celebrity has become the weird mutant thing it has become in our time. There are many people in the audience, but only a few on stage.
The problem with making gods of actors and the like is that while Americans may be idolators, we are still, at heart, Puritans. That means that we bring heavy moral expectations into our worship of the famous and the beautiful. "Leda and the Swan" is problematic — we only play at being pagans. |