Ego and Narcissus

Fame and visibility in contemporary society

Abstract

In a famous statement, uttered in 1968 and now a constant reference in popular culture, Andy Warhol predicted that in the future, everyone would enjoy 15 minutes of celebrity. That future envisioned by the pop art theorist has been our present for several years now. First, it's necessary to understand the scope and meaning of the term celebrity in that sentence. The immediate impression is that this expression doesn't refer to everlasting fame, the collective symbolic celebration of an indelible memory of memorable deeds and ideas worthy of being engraved in history. Rather, the celebrity Warhol refers to is ephemeral visibility, undoubtedly resounding, capable, in certain circumstances, of attracting popular interest, but destined to quickly dissipate, dragged down by the dazzling passage of time. Celebrity, understood in this way, is merely a commodity, a product artfully packaged to momentarily attract collective attention. In a society of mass consumption, desires and preferences are characterized by extreme volatility and fickleness. "Narcissism." This is therefore the concept we need to focus on. From this perspective, the essential question does not seem to be: "Do we live in a narcissistic society?" The answer to this apparent dilemma is obvious and can only be affirmative. Without a doubt, the defining feature of contemporary society is a marked and evident narcissism. Much more interesting, I believe, is to ask when this phenomenon began to spread and what, and what causes, determined it. This question, in fact, allows us, by adopting a broader perspective, to shed light on certain attitudes, both individual and collective, that pertain to a variety of interpretative categories: moral, normative, philosophical-political, aesthetic, and that provide useful insights for delineating the contours of contemporary society.