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Monuments are awesome, they are great for stories to be told, and for remembrance of long past peoples and events. But placing anyone alive on a pedestal isn't healthy. Worst even placing oneself on a pedestal. Not sure if there are studies on this, but all my life I've seen an exaggerated fascination regarding musicians, actors, entrepreneurs, politicians, sports players or journalists. I've felt it myself, but the older I get, the more I try to exchange fascination for moderate respect. But I'm not alone on this, people care about other people, for the wrong and correct reasons. We all are looking for our identity, and usually look for traces of it in other people. IMHO this is the greatest problem of our time. Perhaps it has always been a problem, but a more obvious one now that we are all connected. Anyhow, I wrote this as context for my own thesis: "Fascination with celebrities doesn't have to do with intelligence", it is narcissism and loneliness rolled into a single expression. As evidence I've seen plenty of smart people fascinated with Elon Musk, Angela Merkel or Queen Elizabeth II. Important topic, that needs to be talked, but I feel moving it to the realm of "smart people vs fools" is very unproductive, and basically missing the point. |