Rant on Celebrity

[bjarvis]

I just don't understand the mournful hand-wringing over the recent death of Heath Ledger. More fundamentally, I don't get the whole cult of celebrity thing.

Why is Ledger's death so newsworthy? Because he was wealthy, good-looking and well-known because of his career? Is that all? I'm at a loss to figure out what else it might be. Thousands of other people make their contributions to the world and pass away quietly and with dignity but because they aren't millionaires or graced the big screen, they die anonymously and uncelebrated.

People are dying here & abroad who have contributed more to the world than the likes of, say, Anna Nicole Smith but get not one inch of newsprint. People are dying of preventable diseases, of natural calamities, of accident & misadventure but are all overlooked because of the overdose of an actor.

I'm sorry for his family but I think there are better uses for our time and energy than public displays of angst over his passing. His death is sad and unfortunate but it is not front-page news.

Comments

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

It's James-Deanism, dear. Let it ride.

[madknits.livejournal.com]

You know, I had much the same reaction. I saw a lot of posts last night about how people were personally hurting because of this death. Um, you don't know him. He doesn't know you. Yes, it's tragic. Yes, it's sad. Yes, movies and film have lost a talented actor. But let's have a little perspective here.

What I find more disturbing, however, is that Fred Phelps and his band of crazies are going to protest at his funeral, because, you know, God hates fags, and he portrayed one in a movie. I hope his funeral is in his native Australia, 'cause I don't think Freddie could afford to go there, and the Aussies would probably kick his ass.

[pharmbear.livejournal.com]

Lot's of people pass away and that goes unnoticed but not because it is necessarily unsaid. If I told you about the three friends of mine who killed themselves, you wouldn't remember their names the next day. I think the tragedy is in a very young man full of promise most likely killing himself. Why does this happen to anyone? Not just Heath Leger. We just all know who he is and thus it makes it a common reference point that we can all discuss. I believe it is front page news if not for any other reason.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

I think the fundamental question here is "how exactly DO humans empathize with other humans ... particularly ones they don't spend personal, physical time with?"

The entertainment industry (or the much older art of acting) depend on the fact that humans DO empathize with all kinds of things .... unreal people, people they haven't met, faces on a screen, things they think they see in the sky. We don't understand why we have the underlying capacities, but we have been trading on them for millennia.

In the case of Heath Ledger, well, he was handsome, and my friends list features a lot of people who like handsome men and tend to get emotionally invested in them. Plus he was in a big movie where he played a handsome GAY man, something we used to think we'd never see. People probably got caught up in that, too.

Where Ken calls for perspective, I'm left noticing how non-automatic it is for humans to have appropriate perspective about these things.

While I don't feel a great need to wring my hands over Heath Ledger, I did notice myself a little sad over it last night. The same capacity for empathy underlies why I can feel feelings about LJ friends I haven't met yet. In both circumstances, perspective and lack-of-perspective both seem like questions about "how is it even possible to have these kinds of feelings at all?" ;-)

[manley1.livejournal.com]

I think it's just because it's something people can wrap their heads around more than the failing economy or the drawn-out war. Beautiful famous man dies a young tragic death has a connotation to it that's more accessible than other problems in the world.

Just be thankful

[brokebackvol.livejournal.com]

that it wasn't Britany Spears!

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Others have said it much better than I but what I can say is that I don't have the same reaction others have had, largely in part because Heath is not my type physically even though I did see him play a GAY man in a movie.

Yes, he was 28, but e celeb and a famous one at that, so what? In the end, he's just as human as you and I and it does us no good to elevate him to a plane higher than ourselves so on that front, I don't have any empathy, but as a simple human being, I can empathize as he's now another person who's gone at a very, young age and has not had the chance to mature and grow into middle age etc like so many of us.