Fame, in the past, was granted to an individual that had done something significant. In recent times, however, we have allowed fame to be granted to the most unworthy of people. The word now stands for greed and opulence; something first world countries seem to actively promote.

The dictionary definition of fame is as follow:

“The condition of being known or talked about by many people, esp. on account of notable achievements.”

The average teenager believes that Kim Kardashian or Peter Andre to be ‘famous’, and in a sense, I suppose they are correct. I think it would be interesting to ask someone who holds Kardashian or Andre in such regard why they actually think they are famous. The answer could only be one of two things, an unfortunate fallacy or downright stupidity.

The reason this bothers me so much is that people doing groundbreaking things are not receiving any credit from the public. For example, how many people know the head of Google Inc.?, Doesn’t Google serve millions of people on a daily basis?, Google have made so many innovations that have benefited hundreds of millions of people, and yet most of us don’t know a single employees name. Am I wrong in thinking that is unfair?

In my opinion, the United States media is almost completely responsible for the debasing of the word. The ‘famous’ people in the United States are, in the majority, airheads. Nothing more, nothing less. They are walking advertisements for corporations who seek to bombard you at every turn. Don’t get me wrong, I think some people’s fame is warranted and deserved, Leonardo DiCaprio, for example, is a damn fine actor and funnily enough I don’t remember him starting his career in a sex tape.

It’s not just unfair that these people are famous, it’s also dangerous. Famous people have forever been held as role models by children, my idol when growing up was Yukio Mishima, a superb Japanese author who came from a samurai family. He was disturbed by the influence the capitalist west was having on Japan as he craved an honorable death by the sword as his forefathers had received. He then attempted to stage a coup in Japan and failed, he then immediately had a friend cut off his head and committed HariKari. You probably think I was a pretty messed up child to idolise someone like Yukio Mishima, I really hope you can see why he’s is admirable, though. The man had morals and firm beliefs and was prepared to die for them. I grew up reading Mishima’s novels embedded with anti-capitalist views and I came to agree with one of his major points. That being that Capitalism suppresses the worthy and hides them away from the public eye and throws the starving crowd a counterfeit carefully shaped by corporations and advertisers.

Is it really a good idea to allow our children and ourselves to idolise empty and reckless fools?, children are being exposed to sex at an incredibly early age, they are admiring people like Kim Kardashian and will, in time, attempt to emulate her, or whoever else they may admire.

It seems the only way a worthy person can gain fame in the modern world is to revolt against it. Edward Snowden being a prime example. A year ago Edward Snowden was nobody, today he is a household name. Snowden’s dissidence took tremendous courage, he literally forfeited his life so you, the public, could be aware of the shady goings-on in the United States government. It’s no surprise he’s being considered for the Nobel peace price.

I know this post is slightly opinionated but I felt I needed to get this off my chest.

Thanks for reading and please comment with your thoughts if you have any.