Celebrities, Prophets of Luxurious Narcissism

This article explores how celebrity-culture in its individualistic luxurious form, influences, often indirectly, the educative role of religion in its moral upbringing both at social and individual levels. The highly valued pursuit of fame and luxury, or even false pretense of displaying them –thanks to social media- are among the natural results of excessive dominance of celebrity culture. Fame and luxury might not be bad or negative in themselves, but once the two are placed in the pivot center of a moral-value system, other agents (like religion in our example) can no longer play their proper roles in the ethical upbringing of individuals or communities. When celebrity culture norms turn to behavioral standards, then not just religious practitioners and leaders aim, often subconsciously, at fitting in that context, but also they understand and picture the historical religious figures and holy personalities with the colors borrowed from that culture. It is in this process that religious role-models lose their effective and educative roles in shaping the moral norms of a society. In what follows I shall briefly illustrate different dimensions of the celebrity culture as a distinct modern phenomenon, and then discuss its inevitable presence and pivotal role in any plan for ethical upbringing in a modern society.