THE CASE OF JIMMY
SAVILE shows what can go wrong when the cultivation and promotion of a
celebrity culture grips a civilization. Savile was all powerful. He went
unchallenged for so long because he held command, through his celebrity status,
over all of those around him. Whether it was within the BBC, who saw him as its
biggest asset and turned a blind eye to the many rumours about his conduct for
fear of killing the golden goose; or the many hospitals for whom his charity
work allowed him on to the wards to cultivate his predatory perversions.
The
millions of people who almost worshiped this man did so because of his ‘good
works’ and ostentatious presence, which seemed to find so much favour with the 1970s and 80s generation. Everyone from
BBC executives, doctors, police officers, and prison officers, right down to
the general public; all wanted to bask in his celebrity.
Then
there were other celebrities who, in their time, used their celebrity to
cultivate and abuse their vulnerable and besotted worshipers. Gary Glitter and [Simon?] King took full
advantage of the opportunities their fifteen minutes of fame allowed them. But
they were not alone: there were dozens, if not hundreds of such hedonistic egos
travelling the country, feeling god-like as they turned up to a gig in some
seaside theatre where hundreds of screaming teenage girls were reduced to tears
by their melodic Rasputin’s. They would crowd the stage door after every
performance hoping to breathe the same air as the subject of their wet dreams. They
were emotionally vulnerable and would go to any lengths to hold on to the
attention of such half-wits.
In
terms of celebrity, the likes of Savile were allowed to prosper because he held
power over his victims, while he used Sue, Grabbit, and Runn[1] to
threaten any investigative journalist if he was asked the wrong questions…
while he must, because of his sense of self, have had the utmost contempt for those who saw,
but chose to ignore his perversions. Among whom were many within the BBC.
CELEBRITY CULTURE
has expanded its web. We now have access to hundreds of channels, because of
digital transmission from either a set-top box or a satellite dish. More means
less, and so it has proved with the digital age. Such over consumption of
channels leads to more and more banal ideas being manufactured to entertain the
public.
Reality
television is the nearest the modern age comes to a Roman circus. It does not
leave our TV screens emitting blood (yet) as the ancients sought to do with
their idea of gladiatorial sport and animal butchery. But it follows the same
principles of popular entertainment that many a Caesar put in force to endear themselves to the
citizens of Rome. This time however, competition rather than the populism of
emporia is the justification for such facileness.
We
now have celebrity this and celebrity that. The celebrities are often past
their sell by date, or are being put on the first the rung of the ladder to
celebrity status via some trivial newsworthy appearance, perhaps on You Tube?
Celebrity
is like a drug that grips the individual into believing they are something that their ambition leads them to believe is
unique. They want and yearn for the kind of popularism that Jimmy Savile won.
Such people will use whatever device the media allows them to use, and if in
the process they are humiliated, as they invariably are on reality TV; then
they at least become part of the spotlight of failure, which can also make them
a few bob during the pantomime season.
THE
EVEREST OF celebrity is America. If you make it there, you can make it
anywhere: and this is the desire of all the ambitious entertainers that
seek to win the X-Factor. Once
they arrive, they can, if they wish, follow Jimmy Savile’s example of sexual inebriation.
They will have public backing in the form of the emotional syrup that deems
celebrity unassailable, providing they do not allow their sexual
extravagantness to ever reach the public’s ear.
Celebrity
has replaced religion in our fast becoming secular society: something which the
secularists never meant to happen, but they will have to come to terms with.
Celebrity has also replaced science, maths, and engineering as the prime motivation
within youth culture. No other activity has gripped the conscience of our youth
since the 1960s than seeking to become a pop celebrity, ruling the entertainment
world, and having done so, turning their support to charity knowing that the
media will absorb their every banality and treat their opinions as in some way
profound.
John
Lennon took the lead in gifting a generation
of his trite observations. He and Yoko took to their bed and invited the media
to study their ‘love in’… a concept that even those of us of his generation
found embarrassing at the time. He then composed an anthem to peace which
amounted to repetitively demanding that we give peace a chance; followed by
asking us to Imagine his dystopian view
of reality and find it as worthy of our consideration as Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy
In
the years to come Bob Geldof and Bono would
also take themselves seriously enough to believe they had far more to their
celebrity than being mere entertainers. They believed their celebrity status
included being paid attention to for something other than their music.
It
is not only pop stars but also actors and actresses who believe their chosen
profession is a mere hobby and international politics their true vocation. Vanessa
Redgrave is an extreme example among luvvidom, but she is only unique in the
sense that she is extreme. We all know of the habit of celebrities giving their
support for a particular political party at election time.
CELEBRITY CULTURE
is dangerous. First of all, in the power
it can give to an individual such as Savile; but secondly, the power it gives to
those elevated to A and B list status who can suffer from a delusional
consideration of themselves as being uniquely gifted by God or fate to expand their talents
politically. To believe themselves to have a gifted insight into the world’s travails, and therefore give
us lesser mortals the benefit of their wisdom (sic).
In the past, in communist countries,
we in the West derided what we described as the ‘cult of personality’ that leaders
such as Mao, Stalin, Castro and Che Guevara enjoyed…the latter two, in particular,
among the student culture in the West.
We now have a ‘cult of personality’
in the West which surrounds, of all people, public entertainers, and elevates
them to iconic status; a branding that allows them to advise the rest of us on correcting
the problems in the world; which the media, like flies hovering over shit,
treat as profundities, as they have always done whenever a celebrity
pontificates upon a given subject outside of their professional remit as
entertainers.
I am sorry to say that the celebrity
culture is here to stay no matter how many Jimmy Savile’s, in the coming decades, it throws up. Celebrity
culture is a decadent obsession that will eventually have its consequences for
society. It will continue to blossom and celebrities will command the same
status as statesmen. They will be elevated to the House of Lords upon reaching
a certain age and will have more influence than a minister who has actually
served in government and knows the ins
and outs of international politics.
Celebrities should be kept in their
place by politicians by not rewarding them with even a MBE. But of course politicians
being politicians, they will promote a celebrity merely as a popular gesture
and nothing more. Nothing in fact, has changed since the days of Rome.
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