ROBERTO A SAMSON, a Filipino-Italian living in Ireland, on why we play the fame game – and run the rat race – at our absolute peril
It’s an illness of our times, and nobody has a cure for it. Often it’s not even recognised as something dangerous. On the contrary, people try in every way to catch it. I’m talking about the inexplicable ‘mania’ to be acknowledged by other people as someone successful.
Look at the spread of programmes like American Idol and X Factor in all countries of the world. It’s definitely ‘cool’ to exploit one’s talents, but maybe behind this simple desire there is a hunger to be famous, to be acknowledged as the best, to be someone important, etc?
It doesn’t matter if countless numbers of showbiz stars, or even politicians, have ended in ruin, or have paid an extremely high price for their success – broken families, drugs, even suicide.
Even pop superstar Madonna admitted in a recent interview that at the age of 26 she realised that she had everything – money, fame, and glory – but she actually possessed nothing within herself but emptiness.
Everyone, it seems, wants to be recognised on the streets, followed by fans, or imitated by teenagers. Of course, this can be easily understood in a globalised world where standing out from the crowd is more and more difficult. We wear the same clothes, use the same mobile phones, surf on the same internet. But is what we’re doing now the right way to go about it? Why are people so eager, why do they fight so hard, for 15 minutes of fame? In the past, people could be considered successful and fulfilled if they had a beautiful family, a stable job, and the respect of others. Today, having a beautiful family is quite hard, and the examples the media offer are definitely not at all encouraging.
A stable job is an impossible dream, because globalisation and economic crises can change market conditions in a week. Respect seems to be given only to those who are smarter at cheating others. In this situation, being famous, no matter the reason, seems the easy way to find fulfilment, to be somebody, to achieve happiness.
But not everyone acts this way. Some years ago, a friend of mine started a very promising career as a guitarist. A gifted musician, he was requested by big stars to accompany them during their tours. At one point, however, he realised how fake this ‘success’ was, and how the environment where he was working was gradually taking away the values that had been inculcated in him, and in the end also affecting his own happiness.
So he decided to quit (everyone said he was crazy) and start his own family. He got married, found a ‘normal’ job, and had three beautiful children. After some years, when he was sure his priorities had been clearly set, he accepted an offer to play again. He met his old friends, and realised how lucky he had been to leave at the right moment. Of course they were more famous than he was, but at what a price! They had no family to speak of, few friends besides those interested in them only for their money, and sometimes they were even disgusted at the world they lived in. He now continues to be a guitarist, but his family remains his priority.
We should definitely be using our talents, as even the Gospel teaches us, but when we do it only to achieve something we could never be (that is, being ‘better than the others’) the results could be disastrous.
Instead, we are called to accomplish the plan God has for each one of us, be it to live a simple life or be well-known to everyone. In the end he loves each human being the same way, and for him we are all famous and successful.
