325) How the Mighty Have Fallen

(Mini aside - When I first started The Plan, the daily posting used to stress me out like crazy. I'd stay late at work just to finish it for the night, or would spend hours before bed fretting and typing. It definitely took some getting used to.

Suffice to say that posting has now become routine. Case in point: it's 11:08PM in NY, I've just started writing, and I'm not freaking out. Also, this morning when I woke up, I momentarily couldn't remember whether I'd posted the previous day. A little sad to think that my entry was that forgettable, or that crafting each one has lost some of its specialness. But also a testament to what one can get used to, what habits we can pick up if we just keep at it.)

I've been thinking about our societal love of seeing those in power fall. Goliath taken down. A politician shamed by scandal. A CEO caught embezzling. The celebrity going bat shit crazy, put in rehab, or sent to jail. Oh, how the mighty have fallen, and how we enjoy watching it.

Like or loathe her, I think Gaga's theories on fame are pretty insightful. Start at 7:08.


"Everyone wants to see the decay of the superstar...isn't that the age we live in? We want to see people who have it all, lose it all."

And why is that, exactly? Is it simply comforting to know that those in power are at their core, just like us? By some weird transitive property, does their failure imply that we are able to achieve the same kind of greatness they did? (If we can fail the same way, does that mean we can succeed the same way?) In some quasi-sick, voyeuristic way, does the suffering of others bring us comfort about our own situation? Or do we believe that there's an unspoken sense of balance (karma?) that must be maintained?