What is it About Celebrity that Corrupts?

What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
                        — Ecclesiastes 1:9

What is it about celebrity, notoriety and fame that often distorts, corrupts, and degrades the conscience, morality, and ethics of celebrities?

Do some celebrities, like Icarus, metaphorically and psychologically fly too close to the sun? 

Why does the status of “star” stir the star’s narcissism beyond healthy vocational satisfaction and self-esteem? Is star-power so seductive that it dissolves humility and moral integrity? How does inevitable human acquisitiveness progress to consuming greed and seeming inevitable worship of wealth as a source of fame, power, and prestige? Do fame, fortune and celebrity seductively whisper to inner fantasies or illusions of invulnerability? Omnipotence?  God-like immortality? A selfie with a star or clicks on the internet for all seeking brief celebrity.

Some celebrities to ponder:

Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby helped us to laugh heartily for decades. He and Felicia Rashad helped us to find lively enjoyment in the family life of Dr. Huxtable. We grieved with Cosby at the tragic loss of his college-aged son by murder. Now, we experience collective shock, disbelief, revulsion, and sadness at the reports of  his alleged misuse of celebrity power via sexual abuse of many women. Is Cosby’s star status located too close to the sun?

Over the years, billionaire celebrity George Soros has given voice to this sense of grandiosity many times and in a variety of different ways.

 In his 1987 book The Alchemy of Finance, for instance, he wrote:

Expanding on this theme in his 1991 book, Underwriting Democracy, Soros said:

In a June 1993 interview with The Independent, Soros, who is an atheist, said he saw himself as “some kind of god, the creator of everything.” Two years later at an interview, he portrayed himself as someone who shared numerous attributes with “God in the Old Testament.” 

“[Y]you know, like invisible. I was pretty invisible. Benevolent. I was pretty benevolent. All-seeing. I tried to be all-seeing.”

Soros told his biographer Michael Kaufman that his “goal” was nothing less ambitious than “to become the conscience of the world” by using his charitable foundations.

American presidents as celebrities

American presidents have increasingly become celebrities over the decades. After they serve, they continue to gain wealth, notoriety, and fame. Such celebrity status affords them opportunities to do good or to become or appear to be deceitful, unethical, or corrupt.

Clinton and Obama’s Charm, Charisma and Celebrity Status.

Charm may have as its earliest origin in the smile response that occurs normally at three or four months of human development. A charming smile helps caretakers to bond in delight with the infant. Some infants more than others, have the gift of more glowing smiles. In the Darwinian sense, the smile reduces any potential propensity to destroy or harm the innocent infant by a stranger.

Bill Clinton was always the teacher’s pet. David Maraniss titled his biography of Bill Clinton First in His Class. Clinton, the past master of political maneuvering, luxuriates in the pure joy of implementing his political magic, while enjoying the sound of his own voice. His supporters continue to adore him even after he lied to America on TV and has shown disgraceful behavior.

Barack Obama’s smile says volumes before he ever says a word. Obama’s boyish charm helped him to survive a difficult childhood. Even as a chubby toddler, Barack Obama possessed a winning smile and early gift with and command of words. His white grandmother, whom Obama called Tut (pronounced toot), thought, not without reasons, that young Barack was a genius … especially with words.

David Maraniss in his book about Obama, described Barack’s comment about what people fear the most in the English class of Ms.Czurles-Nelson at Punahou Academy this way:

As one observes Obama’s verbal skills in action, it is impressive how he entwines a winsome smile and a sly smooth charm that accompanies his powerful wielding of destructive words. Words destructive of conservative political values of freedom and personal responsibility. Words that brought ominous “fundamental changes in America”. Barack Obama, Jr. seems spellbound by the omnipotent fantasy of the imagined pure power of his words. “As If” the programs and policies he wanted to establish, and their successful results were already on record. Obama’s words actually helped create anti-police sentiments in America and his wing man, former Attorney General Eric Holder, helped spread such liberal agendas now found in the defund the police movement and the Marxist BLM founders’ propaganda. These leftist slogans have moved beyond Obama word power to be a factor in violent murder of police and soaring murder rates in recent times. Soros money supporting leftist DAs in America adds to the problem.

Celebrity and Narcissism.

The erosion of a celebrity’s soul appears to get ever more active the longer the time period of his or her status ferments. The early years of famous performers often reveal a delightful Billy Budd sort of innocence. Then over time, economic fortune and fame accumulate, percolate and gain momentum … almost in direct proportion to the glitzy mirrors of T.V. and movie cameras (Remember Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, and Michael Jackson towards their drug-addled ends?).

The adoring fans, media, voters, entourages, and political minions would not dare dent their celebrity hero’s narcissism by speaking truth to celebrity power. It is a rare celebrity that maintains sufficient humility, maturity, and wisdom about the danger of falling in love with their own image or words. Billy Graham, Martin Luther King. Jr., Harry Truman, George Bush, Sr., and Ronald Reagan are a few who avoided flying too close to the sun of celebrity.  Their good character trumped possible pathological narcissism.