George Michael must have known something when he wrote,“You gotta have faith.” Because whether we like it or not, no matter what religion we believe in — if we do — we all need to believe that there is something out there watching over us, call it the universe, God, or the government.
In their paper “Celebrity Worship as Weak Religion,” Deena and Michael Weinstein sum it up in a short sentence:
“Celebrity worship is a substitute for traditional faith that satisfies spiritual needs that persist after the latter has declined”
What are those spiritual needs that the Weinsteins are referring to? Community, understanding, and guidance.
In a world that is increasingly disconnected, finding community is one of the hardest things to do. With the loss of third spaces (which you can find out more about here) and with most of our ‘communities’ outside of work and school moving into the online space, we have lost this physical sense of belonging.
This sense was once developped through the common link of religion. Being a part of a religious community instantly gives one a sense of belonging: Humans are tribal animals that unite around common symbols and values. Being part of a religious group validates your beliefs as they are shared by others. Nevertheless, traditional faith is at an all-time low.
This decline is primarily attributed to the cultural norms promoted by mainstream religions becoming outdated. Since many nations have achieved higher life expectancies and an overall higher quality of life, these cultural standards are no longer required. Ideas regarding marriage, sexuality, and equality have shifted so much that we have transitioned from a collective-opinion-dominant society to an individualistic one. One more unsurprising reason why religion is declining is politics.
The increasing identification of right-wing parties with traditional Christian values, with the US Republican Party as the prime example, has driven liberal and less intensely religious voters away from religion altogether. However, it is not only conservatism that is creating an aversion in the voting space. Voting turnout has been historically low in several countries – a trend that is not only disheartening but also shows how many people feel underrepresented by their parties and governments.
The weakening of traditional faith combined with political disillusionment and misalignment with governmental representation create the perfect breeding ground for celebrity worship. But how?
Since the 1970s, the prerogatives surrounding Hollywood started loosening up, granting celebrities more freedom to express their political beliefs and take position on public policies. At the same time, trust in the government was rapidly declining, especially in the US in light of the triple entendre of the Vietnam War, a government scandal, and a recession. By 1980, with only around 25% of Americans believing the federal government would act morally, the distinction between politicians and celebrities started to become increasingly hazy.
The common folk effortlessly trust celebrities due to the magic of parasocial relationships. As celebrities started being injected profusely into every aspect of our life, appearing in advertisements and on TV, we started feeling like we know them, and that they know us. Since the commodification of social media, we feel closer to celebrities than ever before: we see their Instagram posts, we watch them be silly on TikTok, and we read their opinions on Twitter (I refuse to call it X). We can literally send them a direct message.
With our ability to interact with celebrities the same way we interact with our friends online, celebrities become not only relevant but, more importantly, credible. Through this credibility, we trust them to guide us. We gather around them and fawn over their conduct, sometimes even defending them against “the haters” (community). In return, they publicise their opinions, which we share (understanding), and promote what they think is the right course of action or what is important to them (guidance).
Ergo, the holy trinity. Well, not so holy anymore, but you get the point.
The most pronounced example of this is the most recent U.S. presidential election. It is no mystery why the promotion of the Democratic candidate by the iconic “Kamala is BRAT” tweet by CharliXCX was embraced and why Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Harris received a similar response. The case of Taylor is especially interesting because, like many other celebrities, she was not immediately vocal about her political stance, something that the public was pressuring her to make a statement on.
In the end, the point of this article is not to criticise celebrity culture. Apart from its inescapable nature in the attention economy we currently live in, it is not something we can navigate in a moral compass, and it is nothing we can (or should) stop doing. However, the causes of this movement towards celebrity worship are what we should pay attention to. Irrespective of my own political orientation, it is alarming that most of the world’s active voters do not trust their governments to act in their best interest.
The loss of political credibility should ring a loud alarm loud enough not only for us to do a double take on where we source our opinions but also to urge government officials to revise their course of action, priorities, and discourse. Their goal should be to draw voters back into political participation and revive its importance.
In the end, celebrities cannot save us from the problems of collective action we are facing. They can be nothing more than embellishments on the golden frame around this global, modern, proverbial Guernica we are living in.
Featured image provided by Inga Seliverstova from Pexels.
