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Every Man And Woman Is A Star
Aleister Crowley is credited with the quotation, from the Book of the Law, “Every man and woman is a star.” Some years later, pop artist Andy Warhol made a similar statement, “In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Whether or not they meant exactly the same thing with their language, it seems that their words are closer than ever to becoming true.
One of the fundamental underpinnings of pop culture nowadays is that anyone could become famous at any time. It may have started with hidden camera shows. Or it may have started with reality tv. Blogging and viral transmission of videos and the like online have certainly played their part as well. But hidden deep in the psyche of modern America is this almost magical notion that within the blink of an eye, you could suddenly become a star. (I’m not surprised we think this, seeing as our consciousness has been entrained to exist inside of television)
With that made plain, so much of pop culture seems to fall rapidly into place. Why do people like celebrity gossip so much? Why do people love seeing how fat or skinny or ugly celebrities really look in real life? Because we unconsciously see them as our competition nowadays. We no longer keep celebrities on a pedestal. Instead we look at them as our peers, because each of us could at any moment be lifted up by the gods of Hollywood. So we criticize, we pick apart. We look for flaws. We imagine how much better we could do ourselves, if only we were given the chance.
Oh why, oh why won’t anyone give us the chance! It seems like one of the more common psychological problems among the young and creative nowadays. How to get famous. How to get somebody to notice us. How to bridge that gap and leap across the thin line that keeps us from being the successful and beautiful person that the god of the Silver Screen destined us to be.
Then when we can’t live up to the false dreams that have been ingrained in our psyches, we become frustrated, despondent, cynical. We become open to further false hopes, olive branches extended to us from the world of the media and advertising: things we can buy and do which will make us feel famous, if not actually ever get there ourselves…
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August 25th, 2006 at 10:31 am
there’s a classic mindfulness-meditation in which one develops their in-the-moment consciousness by cultivating the mindset that, whatever one is doing or wherever one is going, it is being experienced for the first time.
an amusing, modern variation of this is to develop one’s in-the-moment consciousness by cultivating the mindset that one is always on the camera of a live movie set.
it is commonly said that the most well-performed actions are the ones most automatic and free of self-consciousness. some examples: a reliable method of getting someone to screw up their next shot in pool, or, in general, to inhibit someone’s performance in front of others, is to compliment them, pointing out how incredibly well they are doing.
why? it generates self-consciousness, of course. however, using these meditations can actually, in time, overcome this disability, allowing one to perform with maximum effectiveness, fully in the moment with full self consciousness. this is a back door method of transcending dualistic consciousness, and what true zen was about before it became assimilated into buddhism as the boring old sitting meditation.
August 25th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
pmp -
is that like the Shambalya meditation centers? they talk about ‘mindful meditations’ where you meditate with your eyes open and walk around to teach you to be awake in the world. really really hard to do.
August 25th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
I have my doubts about that particular line of reasoning. Perhaps for some folks, but it seems like a rather simplistic answer for what by any measure has become a far-reaching cultural plague of sorts…
Whether or not it is a uniquely postmodern fame ‘meme’ that contributes to modern Americans’ shallow despondency or just the circular quest for meaning itself is debatable. At times the human inclination toward existential angst reminds me of a dog chasing its tail. The real conundrum, of course, must be faced if you manage to actually catch it (in this case, fame… but insert whatever your persoanl ‘grail’ is)… now whatchoo gonna do with it, hermano? What was the point of catching it anyhow?
It seems to me that a healthier approach to ‘fame’ would be to think of it as byproduct or tool to be used for good or ill, not as a end in & of itself. Fame is really little more than a tool to be used by savvy individuals & corporations. Unfortunately, for a lot of folks who achieve some measure of fame… they simply do not know what to do with it. It becomes a trap rather than a tool.
As for that Crowley quote… to my mind, that speaks volumes about how he faired upon facing the chasm of Choronzon. The fear of being nobody is so great that many will sacrifice damn near everything else… friends, family, love, health, money… raher than shed the sole perspective of their ego.
August 25th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
The NY Times just published results of a study suggesting that a huge percentage of Americans are motivated by a desire for fame:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/heal...&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
August 25th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
I highly recommend Cintra Wilson’s A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as Grotesque Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations as a partial antidote against the fame disease.
Of course spending significant amounts of time outside the US helps as well.
August 25th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Which is arguably the only “meditation” really worth anything, because as any decent meditation teacher/facilitator will tell you, it is what happens BETWEEN sessions in your life that is most important. No matter how beautiful/profound your experiences in seated meditation are, they evaporate and are consigned to the past.
August 25th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
[…] Interesting discussion going on over at Pop Occulture: Every Man And Woman Is A Star […]
August 25th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Crowley didn’t mean it the way Warhol did…although I wonder if there’s a connection between Crowley and the idea of referring to celebrities as ’stars.’
August 26th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
Oh I know, I was just throwing things together