Our Need to Idolize :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Our Need to IdolizeIn a small way, I call back were all monarchists at heart--as long as we pick the monarchy and can shift it at whim. Its when we lose control that we start to panic.The recent death of crapper F. Kennedy, Jr. started me thinking about who the Associated Press and A&E need called an American prince. Why does this need to have somewhatone to idolize survive? Where does it come from? Most of us, if we trace back far enough in our family trees, came from countries control by a king and queen. For centuries, those dreams of the glamorous royalty lingered in our collective unconscious. Little girls often grew up dreaming about be a princess. Prince William, especially after Princess Dianas death, has become a common peg down in middle school lockers everywhere, right alongside the Backstreet Boys and N-Sync. Surely capitalism and dreams of wealth and status are only a part of the equation. perhaps instead its slightly masochistic we all want to be ruled in som e way. We want to be told what to do it makes life easier. This proclivity to remain passive conflicts with what we also crave--freedom. At least for us Americans, we cannot simply yield the power our ancestors fought for. Without kings and queens, we have instead found other plenty to idolize and, without being explicit, they tell us what to do. Instead of the threat of enslavement or death, if we refuse to follow these mandates, were simply unpopular--a fate, according to some teens, worse than or equal to death. Millions of women adopted the Rachel haircut because Jennifer Aniston had it. A desire to be like Mike led to a sports marketing craze for a while, I could not find a single neighborhood getaway game without someone in a Jordan jersey. Is this that radically different than bastard the Great coming back from France and commanding the men to shave their beards? Well, our friendship to celebrity suggestions is, as we Americans like it, largely voluntary. But the fact t hat we offer to follow someone else is significant. If theres one thing Americans can relate to, its individual(prenominal) stories of their celebrities. National Enquirer is not an invention of todays society, but a prolongation of Walter Winchell and Hollywood Confidential. John F. Kennedys assassination was one of the first to be broadcast on television--remember Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live television--and combined the immediacy of life with visual cues.