A Discussion of Star Worship
Star worship is not a new thing. It is as old as the history of human beings. But it is only in the modern world does star worship become common among people, especially teenagers. Many people get crazy about their favorite stars: they admire them, they imitate them, and their world seems to be filled with them. And extreme examples of star worship are quite easy to be found: from the fanatic fan of John Lennon who took the superstar’s life, to the girl who committed suicide after knowing the news that Jacky Chan had got married.
Here the questions are: Why? What leads to the frenzy of stars? And what should we do when worshiping our idols?
Although the phenomenon appears to be complicated, yet it is actually quite easy to understand. There has already been substantial analysis and viewpoints on this issue, but for my own part, anyway, I would summarize the reasons of the phenomenon of star worship into three major reasons. First and foremost, we worship stars out of the human nature to admire brilliant, successful people. Stars, as the word itself suggests, are an extremely shining and eye-catching group who enjoy tremendous fame and, usually, wealth. Thus, people tend to regard them as their idols, and somehow absorb inspirations from them. Another reason, as I have observed, is that in the modern world, amusement has become an integral part in people’s daily life. Stars in different fields——music, movie, sports, etc——altogether provide people with a variety of entertainments. People in the first place enjoy their performance, and then the stars themselves. Therefore,
people gradually become fond of or even crazy about stars. Moreover, developments of science and technology, specifically, information technology, make it much easier as well as faster to set stars. Many stars, such as Jeremy Lin, rise to fame just overnight, which wouldn’t have been possible without the advance of science and technology.
Many people tend to criticize the phenomenon of star worship, citing the examples mentioned at the beginning of my speech. However, star worship itself is actually innocent. Its outcome only depends on how the fans perform. If a fan goes extreme when chasing a star, then it will certainly does harm, not only to him/herself but perhaps also to others. But if a fan keeps rational and derives inspiration and motivation from his/her favorite star, then the outcome will surely be pleasant. There are plenty of examples for good star worship. Sun Yat-sen, the great revolutionist in Chinese history, worshipped Hung Hsiu-ch'uan.; Lebron James, now the best basketball player in NBA, in his childhood worshipped Michael Jordan; etc.
Personally speaking, I am in favor of star worship. And I also have my own idols. Nevertheless, what I must emphasize is that while it is OK to worship stars, it is also very important that we keep a sober mind while doing that and never really get “crazy”.
