What is it about celebrity, notoriety and fame that distorts, corrupts, and degrades the conscience, morality, and ethics of celebrities? Do some celebrities metaphorically and psychologically fly too close to the sun like Icarus? Why does the status of “star” stir the star’s narcissism beyond healthy vocational satisfaction and self-esteem? Is star-power so seductive that it dissolves humility and moral integrity?

How does inevitable human acquisitiveness progress to consuming greed and seeming inevitable worship of wealth as a source of fame, power, and prestige? Do fame, fortune and celebrity seductively whisper to inner fantasies or illusions of invulnerability? Omnipotence?  God-like immortality?

Even our presidents are celebrities and Facebook feeds the moment in the sun for many.

Some celebrities to ponder:

Bill Cosby

Bill Cosby helped us to laugh heartily for decades. He and Felicia Rashad helped us to find joy and enjoyment in the family life of Dr. Huxtable. We grieved with Cosby at the tragic loss of his college age son by murder. Now, we experience collective shock, disbelief, revulsion, and sadness at the reports of his alleged misuse of celebrity power via sexual abuse of many women.

Is Cosby’s star status located too close to the sun?

George Soros (Quotes abstracted from---www.DiscoverTheNetwork.org)

Over the years, billionaire celebrity George Soros has given voice to this sense of grandiosity many times and in a variety of different ways.

 In his 1987 book The Alchemy of Finance, for instance, he wrote:

 “I admit that I have always harbored an exaggerated view of self-importance—to put it bluntly, I fancied myself as some kind of god or an economic reformer like Keynes or, even better, a scientist like Einstein.”

Expanding on this theme in his 1991 book, Underwriting Democracy, Soros wrote:

 “If truth be known, I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood,” fantasies which “I wanted to indulge … to the extent that I could afford.”

In a June 1993 interview with The Independent, Soros, who is an atheist, said he saw himself as “some kind of god, the creator of everything.” In an interview two years later, he portrayed himself as someone who shared numerous attributes with “God in the Old Testament” ,

“[Y]ou know, like invisible. I was pretty invisible. Benevolent. I was pretty benevolent. All-seeing. I tried to be all-seeing.”

Soros told his biographer Michael Kaufman that his “goal” was nothing less ambitious than “to become the conscience of the world” by using his charitable foundations.

Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

American presidents have increasingly become celebrities over the decades. After they serve, they continue to gain wealth, notoriety, and fame. Such celebrity status affords them opportunities to do good or to become or appear to be deceitful, unethical, or corrupt.

American Presidents as Inevitable Celebrities

Obama and Clinton’s Charm, Charisma, and Celebrity Status.

Charm may have as its earliest origin in the smile response that occurs normally at three or four months of human development. A charming smile helps caretakers to bond in delight with the infant. Some infants more than others have the gift of more glowing smiles. In the Darwinian sense, the smile reduces any potential propensity to destroy or harm the innocent infant by a stranger.

Barack Obama’s smile says volumes before he ever says a word. Obama’s boyish charm has helped him survive a difficult childhood. It also helped create and sustain his dazzlingly rapid ascent to political power. 

Even as a chubby toddler Barack Obama possessed a winning smile and early gift with and command of words. His white grandmother, whom Obama calls Tut (pronounced toot), thought not without reasons, that young Barack was a genius…especially with words.

David Maraniss in his book about Obama, describes Barack’s comment as the English class of Ms. Czurles-Nelson at Punahou school discussed what people fear the most.

Obama said,

 “WORDS…words are the power to be feared most…whether directed personally or internationally, words can be weapons of destruction.”

As one observes Obama’s verbal skills in action, it is impressive how he entwines graceful movements, a winsome smile, and a smooth charm that accompanies his powerful wielding of words. His verbal-based charisma is significantly connected to the timing of his rising and falling baritone intonations. These seem studied and resemble other influential speakers like Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, and Billy Graham.

Bill Clinton was always the teacher’s pet. First in His Class, as David Maraniss titled his biography of Bill Clinton. Clinton, the past Master of Political maneuvering, luxuriates in the pure joy of implementing his political magic, while enjoying the sound of his own voice. His supporters continue to adore him even after he lied to America on TV .

Barack Obama Jr. seems spellbound by the omnipotent fantasy of the imagined pure power of his words. “As If” the programs and policies he wanted to establish, and their successful results were already on record. How could anyone disagree with the smooth magic of his words?

Celebrity and Narcissism

The erosion of a celebrity’s soul appears to get more active the longer the time period of his or her status ferments. The early years of famous performers often reveal a delightful Billy Budd sort of innocence. Then over time, economic fortune and fame accumulate, percolate and gain momentum… almost in direct proportion to the glitzy mirrors of TV and movie cameras (Remember Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, and Michael Jackson toward their drug addled ends?). The adoring fans, media, voters, entourages, and political minions would not dare dent their celebrity hero’s narcissism by speaking truth to celebrity power.

It is a rare celebrity that maintains sufficient humility, maturity, and wisdom about the danger of falling in love with their own image or words. Billy Graham, Martin Luther King Jr., Harry Truman, George Bush 41, and Ronald Reagan are a few who avoided flying too close to the sun of celebrity.  Their good character trumped possible pathological narcissism.

Graphic credit: Free SVG public domain