Fame, Isolation, and Faith — How Celebrity Culture Has Dehumanized Us
Like most people in the Western world, I’ve been surrounded by celebrity culture since childhood. I grew up watching films and television almost daily and obsessed over teen magazines in high school that glamorized the lives of celebrities. By my late teens, my interest waned as I turned my focus to art, culture, societal issues, and my immediate experiences. I was more interested in what my friends were doing than some starlet’s latest fling. However, my curiosity and fascination with fame continued to sit at the back of my mind. It would eventually reemerge front and center as I watched my younger sister move through the motions of her teen years and obsession with celebrity culture — a Ben Affleck poster on her bedroom ceiling, multiple Paris Hilton-inspired velour tracksuits, Big Brother episodes, and all.
I was on my way into college at the height of the paparazzi frenzy that included Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, and eventually Amy Winehouse in the early 2000s. I admit my eyes were still drawn occasionally to TMZ and other online gossip publications, a digital transition from plucking through my mom’s People magazines in the 1980s and 90s.
Call it a conspiracy, but it seems far too obvious that celebrity culture and gossip is designed to distract us from what is important. We are primed to be attracted to drama and controversy through mass media. Perhaps it’s even a similar human impulse that our ancestors satisfied through village gossip or whispers in a royal court. It’s so ingrained in us that it has become our default to be voyeuristic in some way or another. Yet instead of reveling in the mishaps, mess-ups, and embarrassments of wayward celebrities, it fed my innate curiosity about people and the human condition.
I’ve always been observant and curious about people. When my parents had friends over or during family gatherings, I would observe the tone of people’s voices and the nuances of their body language, studying how they carried themselves and related to others. I did this as young as four and still find myself people watching at social events and gatherings, analyzing and dissecting meaning from what I observe. I learn from others and delight in the complexities of our human nature, both the light and the dark.
I recently listened to a Jordon Peterson podcast featuring Adrian Grenier, the former actor turned sustainable living advocate. I was quite surprised to see him as one of Peterson’s guests, although another part of me thought, of course, as if it were an inevitable fate.
Listening to Adrian go through his history took me back to a different time when social media was in its infancy, which wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things. I was a regular user of Myspace between 2004 and 2008. It was the first social platform I latched onto and was geared towards promoting art and music, which piqued my interest. Social networking back then felt like a novelty, an experiment that you and only a handful of your friends used. It was a much smaller online community and a slower-paced experience with far less noise.
I came across Adrian through a friend who was following him on Myspace. There was something about Adrian that felt familiar, liked kindred souls. We liked similar music, and he had a curiosity and a way of looking at the world that was very similar to how I perceived things. I was inspired by his posts and his exploration of the effects of social media, celebrity culture, and his interest in sustainable living. During that time my lifestyle was fairly minimalistic and I was using my bicycle to commute. I had a lot of friends who were interested in small-scale farming, permaculture, and nutrition. It was a natural inclination to have an interest in sustainable living practices and the Internet was an open portal of information. Through Blogger, I began writing about sustainable living, following some of Adrian’s video content for inspiration, and further exploring local music scenes in North America which were popping up everywhere then.
As I delved further into connecting online and observing others digitally, I noticed that celebrities and other well-known individuals continued to remain elusive and guarded. They seemed to still maintain a high level of social isolation, despite the flood of opportunity for connection. The Internet might have opened up a whole new social dynamic for most of us, but likely created a social monster for anyone famous. If anything, the crowds that wanted a piece of you pre-social media, now had more access to you, so I imagine it would be easier and safer to ignore anyone who tried to connect with you unless they offered an immediate and worthwhile benefit. But there is something unnatural about this and unhealthy, and likely not much different from the way it was for famous individuals before.
The problem with social isolation is it creates an isolated chamber where connection is limited to those in your immediate environment. It inadvertently dehumanizes anyone on the periphery of your social circle. I can’t help but think of where I would be if I were limited to such a small group of people and had to be overly cautious about anyone seeking to connect online. I certainly wouldn’t be writing or living anywhere near the life I am living now. If anything, allowing myself to be socially vulnerable, albeit, “street smart”, has opened my social circle to quite interesting and dynamic characters with whom I have developed reciprocal and valuable relationships.
As I listened to Adrian move through the motions of his past with Dr. Peterson, I realized fame inevitably led to his isolation, loneliness, and self-destructive behavior. It took meeting a woman he fell in love with who told him the truth to finally reconnect with the individual he was before fame and establish a new life as a mature, 40-something adult away from the accolades and attention of life as a successful actor.
This story of fame and isolation is all too common. How can one come to terms with who they are and grow if they are surrounded by people living in similar isolation or experiencing similar realities and making similar choices? How boring and predictable would that be? Most of my growth and character development has come from meeting people I least expected to meet in places I did not expect to be; this includes connecting with strangers online and taking a chance.
When the famous hide, they separate themselves and begin to believe they are, in fact, unique or different from the rest of society, when, in fact, it’s an illusion they self-perpetuate to their detriment. This bubble they inevitably create isolates them from the very people they would benefit from the most, those who see them for who they are, can teach them something new, or can help them see a healthier path.
This controlled social exposure is far more superficial than the actual reality of how people would generally behave if people in the public eye allowed themselves to be more accepting and open to connecting. The isolation itself creates crazed fans and false expectations. Social scarcity and the dehumanization of those living in relative obscurity creates the pedestal which feeds the problem.
Regular people have learned to navigate life without the protective shields the famous have wrapped around them. They sit closer to the ground and can see the forest for the trees. They live in a place without airs where truth and humility coexist. They embrace connection and open themselves up to criticism and self-reflection. Vanity, pride, and a false sense of power degrade the soul and cause misery and emptiness creating a desperation for reconnection with one’s humanness.
We are nothing without human connection and faith in something greater than that which feeds the ego. This culture we have created that influences our young children and teenagers is damaging their ability to love themselves and accept who they are and what they are worthy of. This idea of celebrity is nothing but smoke and mirrors. No one well-known in the public eye is immune from the effects of fame, no matter how old you are.
At some point in the interview, Adrian mentions attending a Waldorf school as a child and the positive effect it had on him. Jordon Peterson does not ask him to elaborate on that, a subject that would open a massive door for Peterson in his exploration of Christ and the biblical texts. Rudolf Steiner’s study of Christianity is deeply untapped territory that would answer many of Peterson’s questions and offer a valuable perspective.
Adrian also attempts to relate to Peterson’s experience with fame, which Peterson claims hasn’t affected him the same way due to his age when he became well-known and his supportive family. I assume he was referring to the connection between fame and narcissism. But Dr. Peterson has a blind spot; he’s isolated, protected, and challenging to reach like anyone in the public eye. He has a team managing his time and accessibility, which means he is not receiving messages that are meant for him, or he is so overwhelmed by his schedule and commitments the souls that would reach him in a typical environment are in his peripheral, dehumanized, perpetuating his isolation.
Life is full of miracles, and Adrian just dropped one right into Peterson’s lap, with nothing more than an “Uhm hmm” from Peterson and on to the next question. It was a sorely missed opportunity. Perhaps we are only ready to listen when we are ready to hear.
We are all connected physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We should never take each other for granted, even if a connection seems superficial or not worthy of our time. We are all here to offer our knowledge and experience. We are all teachers and students.
In a world that is increasingly robotic and censored, we need to find ways of remaining vulnerable and open as human beings so that we do not devalue what makes us human and dehumanize one another in the process. As unlikely a guest as Adrian seemed on Jordon Peterson’s podcast, this chance meeting offered an opportunity for deeper purpose and profound meaning.
S. Angell is a published poet, writer, philosopher, and video blogger. She explores various topics, including love, life, death, history, and society from a philosophical perspective. You can find her at https://www.therainydaypoet.com/ or on Instagram @rainydaypoetess
