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Imagine all the people

By Ari | Apr 19, 09 10:51 AM

I was just reading this article about tweens in love with the Obama girls, and I was glad to read that the Obamas are really trying to minimize media contact and coverage of their daughters - despite the awesome cuteness of so many kids obsessing over them like they're pop stars. I think people being in love with the Obamas is 100% great. I mean, yes, we should be critical and we should demand good policy and decision-making from Obama, but if tons of people love the First Family and want to be friends with them, I think that bodes well for our country. It sure is nicer than the atmosphere during the Bush presidency. Those were an uncomfortable eight years. I'd rather feel love than contempt for my elected leadership, personally.

However, love that finds its end in consumerism (the article suggests that concert tickets or DVDs are usually the outlet for kids' celebrity obsessions) or in oppression (the media spotlight and the paparazzi can be incredibly unhealthy) is not just love, it's become something else. I dream of a day when humans can love ourselves and other humans for who we all really are, without regard for artificial hierarchies and power structures. We put some people up on pedestals and obsess about them, lionize them or demonize them, over-analyze every gesture and purchase they make. Even if we love them dearly, we may be setting ourselves up for sorrow or for disappointment, depending on how their media image and their life (separate things!) pan out. Or we may subject them to such scrutiny they self-destruct (sorry Britney). This is why I don't believe in heroes.

I just finished reading a book on buddhist practice, and most of it was amazing - buddhism has developed some very solid and demonstrably useful practices that improve people's lives! (Seriously, try breathing in and out and clearing your mind of distracting thoughts, and tell me your stress level doesn't go waaaaaay down.) However, I saw some things that raised red flags for me. The book emphasized that enlightenment can only be achieved with the help of a yogi/lama (a spiritual teacher/guide and source of inspiration). Advanced lamas can control how they'll be reborn after death, meaning that you need to hunt down their new incarnation and get that kid up to speed so they can retain their spiritual status in the community. And finally, the book itself is a "dharma book" - it contains the teachings of the Buddha, and so it must be treated with respect. This involves putting it on the top shelf (above more "mundane" materials), not stepping over it or putting anything on top of it, and ritualistically burning it if it needs to be disposed of.

The whole time I was reading those passages, I was remembering the story of the Beatles in Rishikesh; they really believed in a yogi there who turned out to be a philandering, hypocritical, sexist dude. Too bad. But you know what? That's what happens when you worship people (or their ideas/books). You set up an idol and then you watch them fall, because no one is perfect. Everyone has little dark sad secrets they don't want to show others, and if you put them up on a pedastal and shine the light of celebrity (or heroism, or religious status) on them, you'll illuminate those dark recesses and be disappointed at the sudden realism. So to found a whole religion on the idea that you have to preserve these hierarchies, even beyond life and death, and that your only salvation is in following the figures at the top of the hierarchy, sounds dangerous to me. (Lest you think I'm only picking on buddhists, I'm much more critical of many other religions. At least the directive coming from the buddhist higher-ups is "show compassion for everyone!" That's better than, say, the Pope publishing little books periodically, outlining exactly how his followers should oppress gay people and pregnant teenagers and other groups.)

I guess what I'm getting at is how dangerous status is. In my opinion, it's fake. It has no basis in actual reality - it's something humans have constructed to give shape and form and pattern to our lives. Seriously, consider: What is the actual difference between George Clooney, the Pope, and the anonymous kid on my block who will never stand in front of a TV camera or be worshipped in a church or mosque or synagogue? Do success, money, power, and all the other trappings of status mean that George and the Pope are more important than everyone else? That they're better people? More valuable? Or more loved by god, whatever that means?

If we can stand back and look at humankind objectively, I think we find that all people have good and bad in them. All people are valuable and beautiful. And I believe that all people are equal.

Equality and status are incompatible concepts. We can't say "worship and obey this person, but no really, all people are equal" - there's a fundamental disconnect there. If we really believe all people are equal, than ego, status, hierarchy, and power need to be understood as constructs. They may be constructs many people believe in, but they're constructs just the same. Strip them away, and we have egalitarianism, horizontalism, power-sharing, justice, truth.

If we lose our heroes, our religious leaders, our celebrity obsessions, what do we have left but ourselves and our communities - and how awesome is that? In a world that's falling apart at the seams from the alienation of globalized capitalism, where local resiliency is sorely lacking, why not realize that the brave heroes we're looking for, the wise leaders we yearn for, the beauty and talent that inspires us, are right here at home? Sure, we can love the Obama girls, or George Clooney, or whoever, but perhaps we should look around us and make sure that we love our neighbors and our families and ourselves just as much. There are examples of heroism in every home town, examples to be followed in every family, ideas and skills of worth and beauty in every one of us. There is empowerment to be found in leaving idols and status behind. No obsessions necessary, just universal love - and that's good for everybody. And if leaders we follow wouldn't agree that universal love is better for the world than obsession and worship, we should ask ourselves why we're following those leaders.

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