Reason enough to endorse his succession

Prime Minister-in-waiting Gordon Brown was on the front page of Saturday’s Guardian launching his new book on eight outstanding individuals from the last hundred years (Edith Cavell, Cicely Saunders, Aung San Suu Kyi etc). Each of the eight has changed society (sometimes changed nations) by the force of their principled leadership against prevailing opinions and prejudices. The book (set out as a literary pantheon) is seen as a move to capitalize on Gordon Brown’s reputation for gravitas, and also signals a covert attack upon the cult of celebrity (if this were to be a sustained feature of his premiership it would be reason enough to endorse his succession).



In the meantime the cult of celebrity continues unabated, with increasingly unreal “reality” television, lives “transformed” by ever more grotesque makeovers, an endless procession of glitzy couples and individuals set up and then pulled down and then finally destroyed by a media leviathan that could be allegorized by Goya’s painting: Saturn Eating His Own Children:
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/G/goya/saturn.jpg.html

What is behind the seemingly endless craving for fifteen-minute-fame and the insatiable desire of ordinary people to recreate themselves as celebrities? I think in part we are seeing the emptiness of contemporary lives and an anxiety caused by the failure of organized religion, the ending of life-long careers, the discrediting of national institutions, the disintegration of family life and a general erosion of all the other aspects of society that gave an individual a sense of identity and security. Instead of the old class-ridden structure with its endless permutations and gradations so that everyone had their “place” (and were often kept in it!) we have now gone to the other extreme of a society with only two classes – Nobodies and Celebrities.

Marketing has to share some of the blame for the dissatisfaction of individuals with their current lives. Consumer goods and services are no longer providing the “complete satisfaction” they did in the past, and often the accumulation of more “stuff” comes with greater anxiety instead post purchase relief. The challenge for brands will be to offer reassurance and identity as integral parts of their offering (they are already doing this to a certain extent, but it needs to be taken to a new level).

Historical note: Gordon Brown’s new book reminded me of The Temple of Worthies at Stowe:
http://www.stowe.co.uk/history/gardens_park/british_worthies.html