Cult of the Celebrity



Here's an interesting article by Matthew Syed writing in The Times which looks at the rise and fall of Oscar Pistorius from a sporting point of view. 

I think it's right to point out that this celebrity business does tend to bring out the worst in people, as Matthew Syed says, they are given carte blanche to break lots of little rules and start behaving as if they can do anything they like - because it can all be bought or bought off with money. 

Like a murder charge, for example, and even his convictions for culpable homicide and for firing a gun in a crowded restaurant (which he flatly denied of course) may still not result in this out-of-control young man being sent to prison for a long time.

Which he plainly deserves.   

Pistorius brought low by cult of celebrity

By Matthew Syed - The Times

The Paralympian enjoyed the kind of fame that bestows a sense of invincibility. The Greeks and Romans knew the risks

We will never know what was going through the mind of Oscar Pistorius when he pulled the trigger four times on that February night last year. His testimony, to me, sounded rather implausible but I can also understand why the judge was loath to convict him of first degree murder on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

What we do know, however, is that the character of Pistorius changed a great deal between 2004, when he took up athletics, and 2012, when he arrived in London as the poster boy of the Paralympic movement. As David O’Sullivan, a radio journalist who has known Pistorius since he was 17, wrote: “He is not the boy I knew.”

Pistorius once threatened to break the legs of a footballer after an argument about his then girlfriend. He spent a night in police cells after an allegation of assault against a woman who had come to his house for a party (he eventually reached an out-of-court settlement). He let off a gun in a restaurant (an offence for which he was convicted yesterday).

Arnu Fourie, a good friend, shared a room with Pistorius in the Olympic village in 2012, but just couldn’t cope with his volatility. “I asked Fourie what it was like rooming with Oscar,” O’Sullivan said. “He told me he had been forced to move out because Oscar was constantly screaming in anger at people on the phone. I thought Fourie was joking and waited for him to smile. But he was serious. I was taken aback. I had never thought of Oscar behaving like that.”

When most of us behave like idiots, or cross boundaries, we are told about it. Our friends, our family and our colleagues call us out when we are petulant, aggressive, or boorish. These checks are the stuff of our moral education. The problem for celebrities is simple: they are often deprived of these precious chastisements. They are surrounded by sycophants and hangers-on. They make demands without fear
of mockery. The moral boundaries that are so clear to most people start to blur.

When Pistorius was brought in on charges of assault, it was reported that police officers, in awe of the star, asked him to pose for photos.

Team-mates reported that if he didn’t like his kit and started shouting, officials would run around like supplicants.

This doesn’t explain why he shot his girlfriend, but that’s not my point. I am merely suggesting that this helps to explain how a charming teenager morphed into a man who, even according to his friends, was often out of control. In many ways, Pistorius was more than a celebrity; he was an untouchable symbol of hope and inspiration.

I spent three days with Pistorius in 2007. We went to a wildlife sanctuary, drove around Pretoria and dined together. I watched a training session in a state of growing admiration as he ran sprints on those dark blades until the point of exhaustion. On the final day I sat in the stands as he broke the world record for the 100 metres at the South African Disabled Championships. He was charming, likeable and impressively ambitious.

But the trappings of celebrity were already apparent. He got angry with a waitress when his favourite lunch table wasn’t available, which surprised me. He drove at double the speed limit while talking on his mobile phone, which surprised me even more. When I nervously asked why he wasn’t worried about the police, he said: “They wouldn’t want to touch me.”

The Ancient Greeks had a deep understanding of the dangers of fame and glory. They recognised that the small concessions given to the great and good incubate all sorts of hidden dangers.

The Romans understood this, too. Conquering generals given the honour of parading through the streets were often followed by a slave whispering in their ear: “Remember you are mortal”. This was partly to remind the general of his own vulnerability, but it also performed the ceremonial function of thwarting hubris.

Geoff Scott, a former professional footballer, has made more than a hundred prison visits to former players. He is often asked why so many footballers, despite having experienced fame and glory, end up on the inside. He replies that it’s often precisely because they haveexperienced fame and glory.

Think how often you read about the rich and famous coming to believe in their own invincibility. They are given carte blanche to break so many small rules that they start to break bigger rules.

Celebrity is an enticing but also, in certain circumstances, perilous thing. When Luis Suarez bit an opponent during the World Cup, his team-mates, captain and coach claimed that he was a scapegoat and victim. The Uruguayan president greeted him at the airport. There was no critique, no admonishment, just a shower of sycophancy.

How is a person to discern the boundaries of acceptable behaviour when those around him are colluding in the fantasy that, if you are a big enough star, anything goes?

None of this explains why Pistorius committed such a devastating crime, intentionally or otherwise, and is not meant to. My heart goes out to the family of Reeva Steenkamp: they and their late daughter are the only real victims of this tragedy.

But we can glimpse in the journey of Pistorius from modest young man to a volatile and often petulant superstar a cautionary tale that has occurred throughout history.

It is the honest chastisement of those around us that keep us on the straight and narrow.

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