Being famous is a concept that, it’s safe to say, was born together
with mankind. From one of the earliest forms of art, the writings (supposedly drawings, but not really) on the caves, we can see what our
ancestors valued back then, which is basically figures of the strongest from the tribe/group hunting for food. Back then, the most famous people were the best hunters, and everyone wanted to follow
their example. The most of what you could dream was becoming the
strongest of your tribe/group.
But what about today? How has the concept for the most famous
people changed after all these years?
In the quickest Google search anyone can do, I found what the world
(well, more or less) considers to be the most famous people. Found
in this website http://mostfamousperson.net/, apparently specifically created to come up with the most famous people/person, using
social networks as a source for their rating. In this website, there is a
list of the 100 most famous people in the world.
(Clarification: I am not implying, nor am I stating, that this website is
an international, objective or scientific tool to measure who are the
most famous people in today’s world. This website, however, was the
best tool I could posses to make it more objective, since it actually includes a large number of people who have voted on social networks,
and the results were pretty much what I have also observed on who
are the most famous people in the world. However, the topic of the
post is not related to the names of the people, but rather on their
professions, therefore focusing on the bigger picture)
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Of course it’s got to be amazing to make it to that list and one might
think that in order to be there, one must have achieved a lot, and
have influenced incredibly much in the world. (HAHA).
Well, after a bit of a “tiring” job of organizing the results into categories, here’s what I came up with:
After a few minutes of math (phew, I know right!) now we get to my
favorite part: my interpretation of the results above. It’s incredibly
and tremendously shocking (well not so much really) to see that actually 96% of the most famous people in the world are actually entertainers. That would include actors, singers, sportsmen and models.
What this means, for me, is that our entire world, our understanding
of what we value, what we consider to be important, vital, impactful
is solely based on entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, I think that artists are and should be a vital part of our world, but the fact that they
take up 86% of the most famous people, and that art is represented
only by music and cinematography is something to think about, really.
theunintentional
THE COMPLEX OF
FAME
thoughts on the human world
When I was a kid, I used to have
different dreams throughout different periods of my childhood.
Early on, I was dreaming of becoming a football player, then
singer, then later I started fancying becoming a Hollywood actor, and then, my dream was becoming a powerful CEO. I unconsciously strongly believed in
these dreams, in making them a reality without even judging or
evaluating them at least once, and now, watching the table of
ranking for the most famous people on our planet, I see an undeniable connection between what I considered to be my dreams,
and what the world considers to be most famous.
Coincidence? I think not.
I think that many children have or have had dreams like mine,
dreams of following some of the world’s most famous professions and career paths, and follow the example of what the world
considers to be most famous.
With time, these people become hero-like to children, since it’s
in the nature of humans, I believe, to worship the famous, and
consequently children start wishing and dreaming of becoming
like them, career-wise, and character-wise.
The children of the world get more affected by what they see on
TV, rather than what their parents (or teachers for that matter) so carefully teach them, and right now, the children of our
world are filled with examples of musicians, actors and models
who, like Dire Straits so delicately say in one of their songs, get
“money for nothing, and chicks for free”
Of course it would be a mistake to generalize, or to suppose
that this happens to every child, or in every country. However,
the dimensions of this issue are too large to be neglected, and
moreover, the rough consequences that it brings are vital, and
too important to be neglected, or left unseen. After all, the children are the future of the world, and every society.
I believe that if we want to change the world, we need to pay
more attention on who we are making famous!
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