What’s A Celebrity — Do We Need To Re-think Our Values?
Are we seeing the end of the old celebrity culture and the beginning of a new dawn, when we celebrate true heroes instead of worshiping false idols?
Covid-19 seems to be changing our perceptions in all kinds of unexpected ways, not least our realization of what’s real and what’s not.
Here’s someone who’s very real:
Captain Tom Moore celebrated his 100th birthday last Thursday. That was also the day his duet with Michael Ball singing You’ll Never Walk Alone made №1 in the Top 40.
So who is Captain Tom? He’s a War Veteran who, early in April, set out with his zimmer frame to raise £1000 for the National Health Service by walking up and down his garden 100 times before his 100th birthday.
Well, once his story had captured the public’s imagination, he raised rather more than that — and also walked much farther than originally planned! By the time of his birthday Captain Tom’s walk had brought in donations of £32,000,000 — and he was promoted by the British Army to the honorary role of Colonel.
He received over 160,000 cards from well-wishers, including the Prime Minister and the Queen, and a wartime Spitfire and Hurricane flew over his village to mark the occasion.
Meanwhile many ‘celebrities’ have been complaining about how hard life in self-isolation is for them in their vast mansions.
Attaining ‘celeb’ status has been comparatively easy in recent years. So-called reality shows on TV are one route that have helped elevate many to a status that’s admired and emulated by their fans.
A functioning brain hasn’t been needed and nor has any discernible talent. Skills in self-promotion and shamelessness have worked wonders in terms of finding a kind of fame and teen adulation.
Love Island apparently has thousands of applications year after year from would-be small screen ‘stars’. And then still more thousands tune in to watch the participants’ antics.
In total contrast, here’s a video from someone with interesting insights on our current plight:
So, when this pandemic is over, will we pay less attention to our i-pads and phones and more to each other?
Will we see that our living, breathing planet needs us to re-think our habits? Will we revise our values and appreciate those deserving of our appreciation, rather than those who endlessly try to demand it through their empty ‘look at me’ antics?
I think that while self-isolating we’ve certainly learned to understand the value of a hug and to realize who really matters — and who doesn’t.
Hard though it has been — and still is being — might it be that Covid-19 will eventually prove to be a blessing, rather than a curse?
Of course this is not to gloss over the terrible toll it has taken in terms of millions of deaths globally, lost loved ones and livelihoods — and economies in shreds.
But in the end will we have been taught a valuable lesson that will stand us and future generations in good stead?
Only time will tell ….
