Faites ce que je dis, pas ce que je fais.

This rebellious teenager, the one who has reached a legend status of epic proportions, got my attention. He's achieved the dreams of every popularity seeking, party throwing teenager. His party made international news. He then proceeded to stand up to authority and tell them he'd do it again, resulting in the police making fools of themselves with over the top charges as try tried to save face. The part of me that spent years as an oppressed teenager just couldn't help smiling.

It got me thinking, trying to find a reason why we, as a seemly advanced society, have the preoccupation with such baseless popularism. Can we really blame those who get propelled to the top? Should we feel sympathy for them when they fall from grace?

For starters, aside from betraying his parents, we can't attribute any significant wrong to this kid. He's grown up in a society of pop stars, celebrities and idols; one that grants wealth and success to those who become popular. He's grown up in a world that worships democracy; a system where we make choices by ticking a box; no reason, no justification, just choice for the sake of choice. He's doing what he sees our leaders doing, using cheap antics and shock tactics to gain popularity and power. The real question is why do we do it?

I think it's an artifact of the information age. Social values move at a much slower pace than technology has over the last century or so. In the days before instant world wide communication or rapid long distant transport, one had to impress enough locals and garner enough support before one could take their proverbial show on the proverbial road. To get that critical mass one had to have something worth having. This lead to the correlation between substance and popularity, so when people heard someone was popular they assumed they were a person worth knowing about. The relative slow rate at which popularity spread would give time for them to be critically examined, weeding out most of the nobodies.

What I see is a society that places great value in widespread popularity when in fact it is something that is all to easy to obtain. Rather than question the ease with which popularity is gained, I think we need to reevaluate the value we place in it.