Panic buying and celebrity culture

[paigetheoracle]

Could celebrity culture be a sign of this society's collapse, equal to panic buying in economics?

[pamela]

depends on what you mean by celebrity. If you are referring to people such as Hawking, then I say no- these celebrites strengthen society. Movie and tv stars-maybe spiraling downward. People like Oprah have risen to Mohammed/Jesus status and are worshipped. Just another religion: new faces-new gods-new era

[Racoon]

I started a thread on celebrity worship well over a year ago, and I think its pretty stupid.
Absolutely ridiculous in most cases.
Actors are "pretending", and serve no real function other than to entertain, and yet we elevate/pay them to astronomical proportions and pedastals

I don't think it has anything to do with panic buying.

Panic buying is obviously based on Fear. Fear of running out of food or being killed by terrorists.

Both prey on basic human instinct.
One to survive,
and the other to be attractive, sexy, and successful

I do see celebrity worship as a sign of mental deficiency or lack of self esteem.
Why do many people care more about bread and circuses rather than real life current events??

I wouldn't go so far as to say its a sign of society's collapse... But rather a sign of how many dipshits and dumbasses there are.

Bruce Lee has always been an idol of mine.. but aside from acting, he was a consumate philospher and martial arts practioner.

The whole Oprah daytime TV, Jerry Springer, American Idol, Tabloid Papparazi E- entertainment about celebrity divorces and trysts are disconcerting.

[paigetheoracle]

Originally Posted by Racoon

I started a thread on celebrity worship well over a year ago, and I think its pretty stupid.
Absolutely ridiculous in most cases.
Actors are "pretending", and serve no real function other than to entertain, and yet we elevate/pay them to astronomical proportions and pedastals

I don't think it has anything to do with panic buying.

Panic buying is obviously based on Fear. Fear of running out of food or being killed by terrorists.

Both prey on basic human instinct.
One to survive,
and the other to be attractive, sexy, and successful

I do see celebrity worship as a sign of mental deficiency or lack of self esteem.
Why do many people care more about bread and circuses rather than real life current events??

I wouldn't go so far as to say its a sign of society's collapse... But rather a sign of how many dipshits and dumbasses there are.

Bruce Lee has always been an idol of mine.. but aside from acting, he was a consumate philospher and martial arts practioner.

The whole Oprah daytime TV, Jerry Springer, American Idol, Tabloid Papparazi E- entertainment about celebrity divorces and trysts are disconcerting.

You agree with me without realizing it. Dipshits and dumbasses are being worshipped rather than people with real talent, which keeps a society running through its creativity and truble shooting capabilities. Panic buying is wanting something to fill an empty life and that includes celebrating non-entities, in the same way as fast food culture or the Chinese Meal syndrome i.e. little of substance that satisfies over a little time, rather than has major impact over large time period.

I love Bruce Lee too because of his worked for skill and attempt to understand life as any good philosopher/ scientist does (Get to the root of the matter).

[Racoon]

There is truth about how the media perpetuates "non-stories" in order to keep you distracted from the real issues at hand..
( X Factor, Bush shoe thrower, britney spears, et al)

I believe this to be true..

[paigetheoracle]

Originally Posted by Racoon

There is truth about how the media perpetuates "non-stories" in order to keep you distracted from the real issues at hand..
( X Factor, Bush shoe thrower, britney spears, et al)

I believe this to be true..

Thank you Rac! Trust you to throw a shoe into the works! (sabo-tage: See Star Trek Movie 6, 'The Undiscovered Country', where Kim Cattrell describes the origin of the term)

It was inevitable that somebody would shoe-t GW some day - maybe that is why they want to charge the journalist who did it with attempted murder?

Non-stories are lapped up by the public because they too are unwilling to take response-ability for the world they live in or themselves nowadays.

[Michaelangelica]

yes racoon celebrity worship surprises me too
I am totally uninterested in it. Yet I see in the news-agents hundreds of magazines about celebrities.
Fortunes can be made with one photo.

But perhaps this was there all the time?
Magazines here used to be full of stories about the Royal Family.
Now it is celebrities; the Royals must be breathing a sigh of relief..
Also it suits The Studios to have their stars in the media as it helps sell tickets to movies.
Nowadays journalism is dying and what is printed in magazines is pre-packaged by the media and PR departments. Lately even to the extent of producing clips for the nightly news.!
How many body bags do you see coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan?
The major papers here are laying off journalists in droves and becoming much the lesser because of it. Advertorials are all the rage.
That's why I find the net & hypography so interesting- you are not fed pre-digested pap and stuff that has a hidden (sales) agenda.
It does mean I'm pretty useless on trivia nights.

Do we follow celebrities because we feel these guys have 'all the toys' and have 'made it'?
If so we should be seeing articles about Bill Gates or the head of Ikea?
(Perhaps they have PR departments to keep them OUT of the media?)

On panic buying
Here you only have to have the shops closed for ONE day and there is massive panic buying both before and after the holiday.
When I was a kid we shopped once a week- for that week.-and carried it home.At the end of the week we ran out of things-including money. Who borrows a cup of sugar from the neighbour anymore?
These days people have room-sized pantries equipped for a survival after a nuclear holocaust.