I've always been amazed and disappointed at how so many people will fawn over entertainers while ignoring brilliant people who actually do something practical for society.

"Jersey Shore" is an appalling real-life series that follows a bunch of hard-drinking, brawling, not-so-bright, low-class sluts (male and female). Trailer trash in the city. It's hard to watch low-brow "entertainment" at it's worst.

One of the "stars", a girl named Snookie, recently got paid $32000 for speaking at Rutgers University. Packed house each time. She gave advice such as "Study hard, but party harder", and talked about hairspray.

Nobel Prize, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Toni Morrison will be paid $2000 less to speak at the same university.

This is not only in America....It's a global devolution of society. I say devolution fully aware that celebrity worship has existed for a long time....but it's getting worse.

I'm sure this is not a "generation gap" misunderstanding either...I have always not been able to understand the mass adulation for celebrities.

What would it take to get our children to change their attitudes? (I'm not saying your children or mine....They wouldn't chase these plebian trends ...I'm talking about society in general). It really is a devolution.

Try France. They admire intellectuals enormously.

Entertainers are remembered for a few generations at the most, brilliant people are remembered for eternity.

If I ask you to name ancient Greek Philosophers, scientists, astronomers etc you could probably write a list as long as your arm. If I ask you to name a Greek celeb, however, you might find a couple of names that were known for being close to the Emperors rather than being known for their own fame.

I suspect nothing has changed

In 500 years time the names and works of Einstein and Hawking will be known by all educated folks in much the same way we now remember Copernicus and Galileo. Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise, however, will be all but forgotten.

We do now have video which could keep the memory of entertainers going for a bit longer. But we do have the likes of Sir David Attenborough and Proff Brian Cox, whom are in their own right entertainers, to bridge the gap.

The Romans " Entertained" the masses as a form of social control, not much has changed.

Simple, really. Forced distractions, subliminal mindwashing, dumbing down, social engineering, etc. We'll analyze such things to death, yet still can't figure it out. We like it this way......the control. The suppression.

To the OP, what distinctions do you make between an entertainer, an artist and a celebrity?

To the OP, what distinctions do you make between an entertainer, an artist and a celebrity?

People that work in entertainment, be they artists or untalented, if they are celebrated, then they are celebrities.

Actors, singers, performers, whatever.

Simple, really. Forced distractions, subliminal mindwashing, dumbing down, social engineering, etc. We'll analyze such things to death, yet still can't figure it out. We like it this way......the control. The suppression.

If you're talking about the corporate music that's being churned out by the truckload today I'd have to agree with you, but it wasn't always thus. Some art is liberating.

"The way Elvis freed our bodies, Dylan freed our minds" -- Bruce Springsteen

Good art inspires.

Well, I know about Charlie Sheen and Linsey Lohan than I do about Abraham Lincoln or Jesus Christ.

I guess it's not only the young people. I have little interest in Sheen or Lohan, but there is soooo much coverage of them on TV.

To the OP, what distinctions do you make between an entertainer, an artist and a celebrity?

People that work in entertainment, be they artists or untalented, if they are celebrated, then they are celebrities.

Actors, singers, performers, whatever.

I think your pretty non discriminatory between those who are artists, those who may have talent, and those who are merely famous.

It's incredibly easy to be famous or a celebrity these days. Media outlets have 24x7 hours per week to fill with something. Anything, really. It's harder to be an entertainer. Micheal Jackson was an entertainer, so was Sammy Davis Jr., and Steve Martin and John Belushi. Artists are harder to come by. Art has to move you. It can't only be a pleasant way to pass the time as entertainment can be. Anyway, maybe I'm the wrong person to ask as I stopped watching TV at the turn of the millenium and it's my understanding that the interest in celebrities has not dimished since then.

here's a cute comparison.

Now LeungKen, even though he is my doppleganger doesn't forsee the Huxley projected Brave New World. I can't see anything but, but of course I'm not considering the next generation who may just turn things around.

To the OP, what distinctions do you make between an entertainer, an artist and a celebrity?

People that work in entertainment, be they artists or untalented, if they are celebrated, then they are celebrities.

Actors, singers, performers, whatever.

I think your pretty non discriminatory between those who are artists, those who may have talent, and those who are merely famous.

It's incredibly easy to be famous or a celebrity these days. Media outlets have 24x7 hours per week to fill with something. Anything, really. It's harder to be an entertainer. Micheal Jackson was an entertainer, so was Sammy Davis Jr., and Steve Martin and John Belushi. Artists are harder to come by. Art has to move you. It can't only be a pleasant way to pass the time as entertainment can be. Anyway, maybe I'm the wrong person to ask as I stopped watching TV at the turn of the millenium and it's my understanding that the interest in celebrities has not dimished since then.

here's a cute comparison.

Now LeungKen, even though he is my doppleganger doesn't forsee the Huxley projected Brave New World. I can't see anything but, but of course I'm not considering the next generation who may just turn things around.

Yeah.....I think what I am wondering about is WHY do talentless non-artists that perform become famous? Why do people fawn over them and treat them as demi-gods.

I like your Huxley-Orwell offering. I am with you.....I share the Huxley fears.....mind you Orwell's point is quite on the cards.

I'm also with you in hoping that the next generation may just turn things around and mitigate both Orwellian and Huxley visions.

There was a brief period of time when poets were rock stars at the end of the beat period and beginning of the hippies. In cafe's and run down theaters in big cities all over the US and I imagine London and Paris people gathered to listen to poets read their work to the accompaniment of guitar, single horn or a drum. Old gay poets and writers working the college circuit for new booty.

San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 was one catalyst. Dylan was kind of a crossover character between poet and singer/entertainer.

Of course I don't know if you are really talking about poets in the same breath as physicists.

The Dancing Wu Li Masters may be close to bridging the gap.

Marky, that was also a brief period when people went to Universities to get an education and to broaden one's mind (Ok, and to use drugs, have sex and listen to Rock 'n Roll). These were kids who frequently didn't have a career objective, per se. Education was cheap, loans were available and the blue-collar class had money to spare. Young men really wanted to avoid that little mess 'Way down yonder in Vietnam.'

New experiences were the 'in' thing. Walking around with a copy of Lawrence Farlenghetti's, "A Coney Island of My Mind" (I think), was as in as Gucci bag is today. If you didn't have Bob Dylan, or someone similar playing, when people dropped by, you weren't worth visiting.

Now, people attend University to get a career that will lead to big bucks and a Rolex to go with that Gucci bag while you ride in a Mercedes. The VW bug is a thing of the past, at least until the oil crisis hits a bit harder.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, there were a lot of this group--Baby Boomers. Not only in the North America, but Europe as well. Too many for gov'ts to control easily.

Marky, that was also a brief period when people went to Universities to get an education and to broaden one's mind (Ok, and to use drugs, have sex and listen to Rock 'n Roll). These were kids who frequently didn't have a career objective, per se. Education was cheap, loans were available and the blue-collar class had money to spare. Young men really wanted to avoid that little mess 'Way down yonder in Vietnam.'

New experiences were the 'in' thing. Walking around with a copy of Lawrence Farlenghetti's, "A Coney Island of My Mind" (I think), was as in as Gucci bag is today. If you didn't have Bob Dylan, or someone similar playing, when people dropped by, you weren't worth visiting.

Now, people attend University to get a career that will lead to big bucks and a Rolex to go with that Gucci bag while you ride in a Mercedes. The VW bug is a thing of the past, at least until the oil crisis hits a bit harder.

A whole generation of open mind people? What did this people in the last 40-50 years? What happened to them? Where did they go?

They grew up. Got married, had 2.1 kids and bought a Volvo (and an SUV). Bought a house, went into debt and joined the Republican party.

They grew up. Got married, had 2.1 kids and bought a Volvo (and an SUV). Bought a house, went into debt and joined the Republican party.

Many more moved away for good.

Actually I bought a Volvo diesel. Haight Ashbury was getting too commercial and the next stop in the road map was Denver. Denver was cool still a small town back then. I was shooting album covers for country rock bands and tending bar and writing poetry. Five Easy Pieces was playing at the drive in and Yellow Submarine was at the dollar movies. My girlfriend got pregnant about the same time by boss opened another restaurant and told me I needed me to straighten up and be a manager instead of a bartender because he had to take over his new restaurant.

The junky apartment where I lived in got turned into a condo. I bought it and sold it 6 months later and caught the first leg of the Denver property boom; put the cash into a high tech mutual fund. The profit from that bought the first house and before I knew it I was sitting in the Red Carpet lounge at the SF airport with a private phone at the bar drinking single malt and looking at the financials of 52 steak restaurants scattered all over the West coast. Now it's all gone.

They grew up. Got married, had 2.1 kids and bought a Volvo (and an SUV). Bought a house, went into debt and joined the Republican party.

Never trust a hippy!

The junky apartment where I lived in got turned into a condo. I bought it and sold it 6 months later and caught the first leg of the Denver property boom; put the cash into a high tech mutual fund. The profit from that bought the first house and before I knew it I was sitting in the Red Carpet lounge at the SF airport with a private phone at the bar drinking single malt and looking at the financials of 52 steak restaurants scattered all over the West coast. Now it's all gone.

So it was you who turned the beatnik clubs, cafes and run down theaters into steak restaurant?

See above.

Actually, always trust a hippy. It's those ex-hippies you have to look out for!

Actually, always trust a hippy. It's those ex-hippies you have to look out for!

I think the mantra at the time was never trust anyone over 30. Which was a major problem for me when I hit 30.

Simple, really. Forced distractions, subliminal mindwashing, dumbing down, social engineering, etc. We'll analyze such things to death, yet still can't figure it out. We like it this way......the control. The suppression.

The human race will begin solving its problems on the day that it ceases taking itself so seriously.

Malaclypse the Younger

Never ever was more information available than now.

Freedom is the right to CUT-UP and to sample what you want

Isn't it scary that just 'the hippie generation' becomes sentimental and demand more order and discipline?

Many more moved away for good.

By the time they went to San Fransisco, WSB moved already to other continents and explored other cultures. Way to go.