[princesskadee]

famous or infamous

with the recent news of the virginia tech massacre and the 23 year old gunman, Cho Seung-Hui. i have come to realize upon something of interest:

It seems to be quite easy, in relative sense, to make headlines in this country, let alone around the world.

This debate is focused on becoming famous or becoming infamous, and what the odds are of acheiving either status.

Before the Virginia Tech massacre occured, Cho Seung-Hui was a virtual nobody; a loner, who refrained from social contact and kept to himself. This all transformed, when Cho carried out his sinister plot, and even his own life, but the end result was that within about a 3 hour timeframe, Cho went from being unknown, to globally known.

While I am not condoning any form of violence, nor stating that what Cho did was of righteous nature, I am simply reviewing the issue at hand at its meer merit.

We all are born and live our lives out in our own unique way. Many of us want to be the best we can be at whatever we pursue. Society has brainwashed us into this conformed state of mind, that success and fame are solely measured by wealth. Love, care, and charity seem to hold no weight in comparison to wealth.

So for example, if you wanted to volunteer a lot of your free time to cleaning up local churches, assisting the elderly at nursing homes, giving blood on occasion, joining big brothers/big sisters, etc etc...the most recognition you may get, is a brief mention in your local paper. Continued efforts would probably garner you a banquet dinner in your honor, and maybe even an award from your mayor.

However, if you donated money,.especially a large amount,.you would get such recognition much faster,.even if no tidious labor was performed out of charity. If you possessed immense wealth, and gave to charity,.this would pretty much get you local, regional or national spotlight.

If your conscious is of good nature, and your goal in life is to become famous ( and not infamous), you basically have these options:

1. Possess high intelligence, and pursue much education, and then put that knowledge to work to better the world with your insight. Whether it be an invention, a conservation idea, a financial investment, etc.

2. Possess immense wealth, and use your money in either a charitable way, or a profitable way, that would either benefit you, or a community.

3. You possess unique talent or skill: (this could either be a physical or mental skill) bodybuilding, acting career, dancer, politician, nobel prize recipient, great mathmatician, scientist, athelete, etc etc.

On the darker side of things, if you wanted fame, and did not possess these things, nor had the desire or diligence to try to pursue them..your only option would be infamy.

We learn that in todays insane world, that achieving a status of infamy is done rather quickly. The fastest method usually is the result of taking out many lifes in a short amount of time:

1. Virginia tech massacre
2. 9/11/2001
3. Oklahoma City Bombing

There are other methods of achieving an infamous status, this is usually the result of theft of other's wealth, or basically commiting an undesirable act that is deemed outstanding compared to the average criminal mind.

I would like to end on this note, that if the media could only focus on the good-natured attempts, it could resonate within us all. If CNN and other media sources could lend their focus to small local deeds of charity, it could foster ideas into youthful minds and give them guidance, maybe even positive role-models. Even if fame isnt our goal, simply acknowledging when good deeds are done, and not dismissing them with no recognition at all, could be the start to make the world a better place.

This post has been edited by princesskadee: 18 April 2007 - 01:33 PM

[David-kyo]

Quick question: do we actually WANT to be famous? Personally, I couldn't care less what people I don't know think or don't think of me, I want to be surrounded by the few people I like/love and it's only their opinion that matters to me.
I have my goals, I pursue them with diligence (yeah right), I probably won't be famous, but that's ok as long as I achieve them.

[Spoon Poetic]

I don't want to be famous. However, I do agree that the news could spend more time interviewing people that give their time and energy to charities, etc; and less time modeling sunglasses. No joke, the other day I was flipping through the channels and I had to pause - don't remember which news channel, but they spent about a 20 minute segment on what sunglasses were popular with celebrities right now. Ugh.

[Deepsycher]

I see a lot problems unless dying before becoming famous for an important reason. To me it is like a decoration and people profit from it. When I read the newspaper it strives over negativity to make an interesting argument but sadly some of it is true.

[Gobbler]

Being famous... yeah, that would be neat. As a side effect. Not gonna happen though, as I do not possess any talent that would get me there, and I'm far too sensitive to go on a killing spree.



... gee, "possess" features a lot of esses, eh?

[David-kyo]

I'm far too sensitive to go on a killing spree.

It's just a matter of time. I'll do my best to get you there.

[Gobbler]

Gee, what would I ever do without friends like you?

[Spoon Poetic]

I wanna be rich without the famous. I'm hoping to be able to achieve that someday through working hard and being frugal. I don't see the appeal of being famous at all. I also wouldn't make it so people could tell I was rich - the wanting to be rich part only comes from living in poverty my whole life, and I want to be able to not worry about not being able to buy food or losing the house due to not being able to pay the bills, etc; and I also want to be able to help out other people that need the help, without it putting me in a bind.

Why do people care to be famous at all, anyway? I guess I just am not the kind of person to understand that goal.

[Gobbler]

It's not like they do it because they are all shallow.

We just want to be acknowledged by others and often it's like this: The more, the merrier.
Gee, I'd like the whole world to see my pictures, really wouldn't mind getting that recognition.

And I can tell myself "Oh I don't care about what the world says" as much as I want, but it's still a stupid lie. Sure, there are some who I gladly ignore, but the rest is not most likely not that stupid and therefore deserves my consideration.
And if they seem to like me, then I surely won't tell 'em off.

Our wonderful role models nowadays also showed us that it can easily get to your head and/or put a lot of stress on you and whatnot, so people like you and me often decide for themselves, that it might be better to keep it simple after all... but if you can handle it, then why not? Just because some envious morons come a-yellin' "Oh, everybody likes him, therefore he's mainstream, therefore he's a fugly smacktard, because indie's soooo much better and yadda yadda yadda..."? I think not.

[blueoceans]

Cho Seung-Hui was a virtual nobody; a loner, who refrained from social contact and kept to himself.

and someone said 'fair warning Lord will strike that poor boy down turned from hunted to hunter went to hunt somebody down!'"

~Van Halen, from the album Fair Warning

[Spoon Poetic]

I wasn't accusing everyone that wants to be famous of being shallow. I just usually don't like to be the center of attention (except in certain circumstances, like a serious date or something, I should probably be at least close to my date's center of attention ), and don't understand how people could want that position, especially when you're talking about hundreds of thousands of people.

[David-kyo]

Gobbler, this 'I don't care what the world thinks' mentality shouldn't be necessarily considered a weak lie. Personally, I don't give a damn about it, except for my closest friends and relatives. Everyone else, well... one of my favourite pastime activities is alienating the people I hardly know but am already annoyed with away from me with ambiguent, cynical and/or extremely sarcastic remarks. Try it, it's really an enjoyable thing to do.

[Sailor Abbey]

I wonder about that every day [why people want to be famous]. Every time I go to the grocery store and see those magazines with all those celebrities saying and doing ridiculous stuff I am reminded why I would never want to be famous.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel a bit sorry for them. Every last one of them knew being famous would mean sacrificing their privacy. If you don’t like it, don’t become a pop star. If you don’t like it, stick to theater or independent films.

Sometimes I think it would be cool to be famous, just because people would care about what you had to say and it'd be nice to have loads of money. But then reality sets in, and I remember that the only people who would give a shit about what I (a stupid celebrity) had to say were immature little fucks who cant think for themselves in the first place.

The biggest reason I would never want to be famous is because people freak me out. I would have to move to a gated community or something and people would always be trying to take my picture (I am not photogenic) and people would be forever twisting everything I said to create controversy.

Fuck that. Give me some trees, some kitties, and a kind person to keep me warm at night and I’m satisfied. Ok, a hot, kind person. People want fame to fill the empty void inside them and it rarely works - hence the Betty Ford Clinic.

[Slade]

It's true that people who become famous need to know what they're getting into, but at the same time, something should be done about the media vultures who make those people's lives hell.

[David-kyo]

Somehow, the people who get famous as just a consequence to what they do (unlike those who have been striving just to BECOME FAMOUS all along) seem to cope with this media vulture shit better. Although those paparazzo gossip-spreading fuckers should definitely chill out.