Fame

When it comes to celebrities handling fame, there are those who handle it well and live normally as possible, then there are those who’re either destroyed by fame (especially if they’re highly self-destructive, contrary personality or suicidal) or if they use fame to get away with shady acts, even if it ironically brings more attention to it.

In the case with Britney Spears, she admits to being too shy for the music industry and possibly why she can’t handle it well, it’s like if you’re reserved and retiring you’re not much of a people person but when you’re made to please and entertain a lot of people there’s only so much emotional labour you can take until you snap, which’s probably her case.

(Spears might’ve done a lot of emotional labour to please and entertain people, even if it’s at the expense of her own preferences and personality like she wanted to do country music but made to sing contrary to her real voice.)

Then comes the second set of people who use their fame for shady ends, to get away with doing something bad without knowing that draws much more attention this way. As charismatic as David Bowie was, he also raped women and a teenaged girl even in the 1970s and 1980s as to show you he’s actually the kind of person to abuse his responsibility.

Some of the same things can be said of Michael Jackson and other celebrities who’ve slept with groupies, where they’re evidently the sort of character who’d abuse their power and responsibility to do really shady acts though this also overlaps with the former to some extent.

(Does bad things when famous, yet can’t handle fame that well either.)

Some people just don’t have the right personality for fame, let alone using it wisely that it takes a resolve to use fame for good and maybe enter another field where the pressure for celebrity’s minimised. Some abuse fame to do shady acts, others handle fame well enough.

It doesn’t stop the pain

When it comes to suffering, it strikes the rich as it does with the lowly like say King David suffered a lot in life where he cheated on somebody and then lost her child and had to make it up for it. Likewise, a good number of celebrities have battled addictions of sorts, have their own faults and dealt with miscarriages.

That in a sense, even the rich and famous suffer a lot in life which makes even more sense if they have allergies and/or mental health problems complicating matters. Like if you’re allergic to either cats or dogs or both, it’s going to be hard going through it without sneezes and hives.

Likewise a celebrity’s schizophrenic, paranoid and can’t tell what’s real and what’s not, that has to be considered more often not so much to disparage people but to bring light to suffering that it can happen to the rich and famous.

Even celebrities suffer

To better illustrate Christians going through suffering, the rich and famous also go through it whether if they’re mentally ill, phyiscally weak (some celebrities have serious health disorders like say allergies like they can’t go through something without risking hives and sneezing), lose somebody/something and struggle with infertility that needs to be considered more.

Even famous Biblical characters suffered, whether if it’s King David making a mistake or Jesus suffering to save many people’s lives in death that needs more attention in light of celebrities’ plights and sufferings. Some celebrities are unable to give birth, some struggle with addictions and other problems that suffering knows no boundaries.

That needs to be considered more, like say a pastor’s dying from AIDS that the prosperity gospel becomes more of a sham as fame and fortune never stops people from suffering in some way or another.

You still suffer

I still think that Christians need to realise that even the rich and famous still suffer a lot in life, whether if it’s loss of a relative, spouse or pet, losing things to a fire, mental health and physical health problems (allergies need to be taken into consideration, considering how hard it is to go through things without risking sneezes and hives), addictions and bad relationships that needs to be considered.

Some celebrities admit to being addicted at some point or another themselves, some are addicted to porn, some are addicted to alcohol and some have battled drugs even. Some celebrities die from illnesses, like say AIDS (as it is with Freddie Mercury and Gia Carangi) that even when you’re holy, you still face a lot of suffering in life.

You could suffer a lot from AIDS and still risk dying, you could be mentally ill and strive to keep calm even though that’s the hardest thing to do. Some Christians have lost their pets, spouses and children a lot and so do some celebrities really. If you’re rich and famous and still struggle with poor health, you’re in good company as other people have that too.

Suffering knows no boundaries, that even celebrities and God suffer a lot in life as well whether if it’s vice or mental health problems that needs more attention from Christians. Not so much to put them down, but to realise that suffering’s also the case with famous, rich people.

It doesn’t stop there

I still think that if celebrities are any indication, even if you’re rich and famous you’d still suffer or struggle a lot in life that Christians need to take notice of: you could be a world famous celebrity but still suffer from allergies and horrid schizophrenia that pain knows no boundaries and social classes.

Imagine how hard it is to live with schizophrenia and allergies, where you can’t go through things without sneezing and getting hives or getting hospitalised, where you have a hard time knowing what’s true and what’s not. Even King David suffered a lot in his life, cheating and losing a child having to make up for it.

Some celebrities struggle with substance abuse, some celebrities have dealt with the loss of their relatives and spouses that they still suffer and suffering discriminates nobody, not even God too.

Being famous doesn’t solve all problems

I still think that the other problem with the prosperity gospel’s that even those who’re rich and famous still suffer, whether if it’s their ill health, bad relationship problems, mental health problems and other struggles that not even wealth and fame stops them from suffering a lot in life.

So did King David, who for all his wealth, was still fallible when it came to doing adultery and her child dying that should serve as a warning or at least acknowledgement that fame and fortune doesn’t always stop problems. Imagine how some celebrities have to endure their suffering, that should be something Christians should be aware of.

Some celebrities continually struggle with bad physical health, some of them struggle with poor mental health and others struggle in their relationships and stuff that fame and fortune doesn’t stop them from struggling in one way or another.

The disappointing idol

That’s to give you the idea of the problem with idolatry based on idealisation, that you like the stone idol and the golden calf so much but they disappoint you in ways you don’t expect, like the golden calf having a short fuse, nasty to followers and bad at handling its own child and the stone idol being rude to fans and has multiple meltdowns filmed on social media.

It could be about somebody’s favourite actress or any other celebrity, the problem would be the same. But I also think even if that favourite actress has a hot temper and mean at times, she’s not any less of a person really though that would involve being mature about this, knowing you can’t devalue people even if they screw up a lot.

But that’s also some of the problems with idealisation, once the illusion of perfection is ruined (a frequent hot temper ruins a sweet facade) that makes it harder to reconcile with the idealised image that in hindsight, even idols still disappoint you with their own shortcomings.

Even the golden calf makes mistakes

If that’s true, even people’s idols are only human in the sense of being fallible like beating up a child and spouse on social media whenever they’re mad, preferring to hoard things rather than to share with others, masturbating in public when drunk and always giving the middle finger to their worshippers.

In the sense that even a fan will be disappointed if their idol does things, they don’t except them to do like being so angry at their own relatives as to beat them up, caring for animals instead of children, refusing to cheer up their fans and even giving them a black eye whenever their privacy’s disturbed.

Even the golden calf makes mistakes by throwing their baby whenever it cries, drinking a lot of alcohol and smoking weed everyday on social media.

Only human

I think the problem with idolatry when based on idealisation is that if people knew their idols’ faults like being abusive even to their own children and spouses, hot-tempered in reality underneath the facade and violent to their worshipppers perhaps golden calves are only human or at least fallible in how and why they disappoint their fans whenever they screw up.

Even if celebrities are fashioned out of stone, steel and wood they still make mistakes like beating up their child whenever they cry, throwing out their spouses’ belongings to spite them and even have frequent meltdowns in public and on social media that they’re still fallible. Eaten away by rust, termites, wind and water those idols will always disappoint their followers (trust me this happened to me before).

They’re not necessarily bad, as much as they’re fallible whenever they beat up their spouses and children whenever their fans expect them to be nice, as if the idols’ true power to frustrate and disappoint their fans.

Your idol is rude and mean

That’s to give the problem with idolatry based on idealisation, you make them out of wood and steel expecting them to be nice to you and anybody else but they cuss a lot, throw fits and stones at people who bother them a lot, can’t even manage their own families and beating up their spouses a lot (like what Johnny Depp did to Amber Heard).

They disappoint you a lot because you don’t expect them to do things like stomping on a baby whenever they get mad, smacking people around whenever they get mad and crying in public whenever they don’t get things their way like keeping the animals whenever people tell them to stop hoarding. You expect the idol to be nice and bubbly, never mind it can be rude and grumpy.