When I was around the age of ten, my parents told me that they had been talking with a curious little man at their church. (He either has a withered arm from polo or a wooden leg. My memory is hazy on the details.) He had a parakeet, and because of his circumstances, he was having to give it up. Would I like it, they asked me? Would I?! For me, having such a pet would be tantamount to being a pirate.
Unless you manage to avoid the TV, radio and the press you can’t escape it: Our society is obsessed with the cult of celebrity. Has it always been this way? I think that it probably has. But with rolling news and the internet, we experience news, as it happens, like never before, including celebrity news.. Significantly, the modern celebrity doesn’t need to have done anything noteworthy to require celebrating. In particular, reality TV throws up ‘stars’ who have, as yet, shown no noteworthy skill or achievement. It’s now well know that in surveys children no longer want to grow up to be teachers and doctors, like they used to, but to be sports stars and pop stars. On talent shows you can regularly hear the same words tumble from the lips of gifted and dreadful singers alike: “It’s my dream”, “Singing’s my life”, “I really, really want this”. Is there really such a fine line between genius and delusion, or is there something more going on here?
