The gods are dead. Jehovah, Zeus, Venus, Vishnu. Shadows of these once universally worshipped deities may drift through our present time, but their great influence has faded into the umbra.
With the fall of these champions of immortality, we had almost escaped the basic human requirement they provided: the need to worship. To this end, we have taken it upon ourselves to create our own, more mortal, deities.
Celebrities represent a deep loss for the human collective and a desperate attempt to raise surrogate effigies of our fallen gods. What else could our behaviour towards them be described as, other than worship? We lap up their words like hungry dogs, read their writings, watch each and every move they make, wish deeply that we could one day become like them, and yet we know nothing of their true nature.
Like the gods of old, these people, these human beings, are a manifestation of ourselves. Those whom we love represent everything we love, or, perhaps more honestly, want to love about ourselves. They have beautiful, glowing bodies, minds of crystal thought, and pockets of gold.
Alternatively, those who receive our loathing represent the deep, dark places inside ourselves: vanity, rage, sloth… We chastise them for that which we ourselves are more than guilty of.
These false gods live perpetually between Scylla and Charybdis, teetering on the edge. We train them to beg for our love but then scorn them when they grow greedy. And, as such, those whose novelty wears off, we choose to cast out like cold lovers who have lost their ability to please.
Veronica Lake, perhaps one of the biggest sex icons of the ’40s, died penniless. Sometimes, though, the good memories remain: Molly Ringwald, one of the biggest stars of the ’80s, is remembered fondly and still lives today.
Even now we have begun to see the decline of many who were once widely worshipped by us or our peers. Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, the Kardashians: each tries desperately to hold on to our love, but their seats have already been filled.
What this says about humanity is tragic. What will it take for us to realize that these men and women are not a substitute for our own lives?
The only thing required to escape this cycle of worship is simply to look away, to find happiness in ourselves, and to worship ourselves and each other.
That is where true happiness will be found.