Vanity, narcissism, attention-seeking behavior. Vices? Maybe. Weaknesses? Probably. The desire to stand out is innate. Often also shy people use their silence to catch the attention of the rest of the world. But the longing to be noticed can go beyond and become a spasmodic celebrity research.
In the era in which everybody have the opportunity to create their own showcase and make it bright and sparkling like an everlasting Christmas, there’s the space for the prophetic statement by Andy Warhol «in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes». Andy’s future is our present or even our past. And minutes, unfortunately, are more than fifteen. Internet, social networks and television too are used by celebrity, an abstract but powerful entity, to seek its victims.
Getting recognized on the street, being called VIPs, being stars. These aims are empty but are filled up by thirst for money and success, a sort of success that many times doesn’t exist or is so evanescent to vanish completely.
Starving to death was and is a problem for many people but nowadays people die also because a lack of fame. What could you accept to do just to taste the public acclaim? A flavor that is sweet at the beginning but can become bitter. A not well-run fame easily brings towards moral and material failure, from hero to zero.
Could you deny your dignity to be considered famous? I apologize for the examples I’m going to use, they’re effective. Let’s think about Gemma from Uomini & Donne, a seventy-year lady that built her character based on public humiliation, tears and insults. Let’s think about those VIPs that no one remember, those ones that don’t accept their status and haven’t the nerve to admit they’ve never been celebrities. Maybe someone has moments of glory, but time passes and is ferocious. And so, they decide to attend TV shows like Celebrity Survivors and fight for a cup of rice, the most primitive nature arises. Little lifeless stars that don’t shine on its own and need spotlights to be sparkling.
Also common people die because a lack of fame. Those people that to get a framing on TV are ready to argue for a seat close to the video camera, those ones that create an Instagram profile and add official close to the name (who wants to steal your identity?), those ones that invent fake news, those ones afflicted with mythomania. Celebrity Olympus is craved by many people but is just for few. Beautiful, shining and immortal fame is exclusive. Then there’s the rest, the weak notoriety that makes you transparent and in the end doesn’t leave either a vague recollection of you.