John said:
Social perfection: Celebrity
Leif replied:
Wouldn't social perfection be a society that supports intellectual patterns?
The same way as biological perfection would be an organsim that can support
social value patterns?
dmb says:
Yea, it's better for a society to be guided by intellectual values but this
leadership does not eliminate social level values or convert them to
intellectual values. Those two levels are both going to exist within the
culture and the questions are about how they get along and who's in charge, so
to speak.
"Celebrity" does serve as a kind of organizing principle on the social level
but it's a bit like "attractiveness" on the biological level. The particular
values and qualities that a society "celebrates" are going to vary in the same
way that standards of beauty are flexible. You can tell a heck of a lot about a
culture by examining its heroes and stars. Celebrities embody the values of the
culture, give them concrete expression. Infamous villains like Hitler, say,
serve to exemplify negative values, show us a picture of what we don't value.
Fame and fortune are the rewards of playing this social role. Those are the
values that drive social level ambition, to be rich and popular or even
powerful.
Einstein never got a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.
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