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Hero worship, Celebrity worship
Happened to view the movie "Troy" last night, with Brad Pitt et al.

Achilles, the great Greek hero, many Greeks follow him into battle.

Achilles was immortal (well, except for his heel, where his immortal mother held him when dipping him into the river Styx, to make him immortal), but the thousands who followed him were not, and met a dusty death.

Here's an excerpt about hero worship, from an article.

"But what drives our endless fascination with celebrity worship? And more importantly, can its enticing seduction ever be harmful to our health?

The answer, it seems, depends a lot on who is doing the worshipping -- and the reasons why.

"Like most things there’s a dimensional approach here; there are some people who are fascinated by celebrities lives, but also involved in meaningful activities and relationships in their own lives, and for these people star watching is usually a harmless diversion," says Eric Hollander, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of the Compulsive, Impulsive and Anxiety Disorders program at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

For others, however, things don't go quite that way. Hollander says there are an increasing number of us for whom the fascination with celebrities is a substitution for real life -- with the focus on a celebrity replacing the focus that should be on our own lives. And that, he says, is the point at which some folks begin to get into trouble.

Depression, anxiety, and a decrease in self-esteem are just some of the documented problems that can result when we take the focus off our own lives and instead focus all our energy on the life of a celebrity."

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SILVERWOODSTUDIO

3/2/2016 11:58:56 AM

Interesting topic Steve.

I think status anxiety is the key to many folks behavior, re celebs or even politicians Donald Trump for instance!

Some folk are conditioned this way by media, low IQ, their family and friends, or some important event even.

To me it's like giving away good energy, which could be used for your own projects and creativity, and using up that drive which could be furthering yourself and / or family members with talent. ie. it diverts you towards trivia which will have no benefit to your own life.

Sure, there are many artists, public figures I admire but I do not feel in awe of them because frankly, I have my own shit to work on!

I recomend the book "Status Anxiety" by Alain De Botton---you can find it on the 'net

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Stoneman

3/2/2016 12:43:52 PM

Very good topic Steve. I was going to write something but after reading Rob's post I can only say. Yes, exactly what he said! That was worded perfectly!

Much Respect.
Stoneman

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Richard Scotti

3/2/2016 2:31:09 PM ---- Updated 3/3/2016 12:21:29 PM

Many people today live vicariously through other people. They envy what others have done or what others have and they feel anxious that somehow they don't measure up to their idols. They seem to find solace in emulating those figures or dressing like them etc. But the real problem is that so many people just don't have lives of their own, so they engage in hero worship in an attempt to have some of the good fortune rub off on them.

I've never known a truly happy person who didn't have some kind of creative hobby. That's the answer to futile hero worship or status anxiety ~ make something! Create something that never existed!! Get a freakin' hobby and stick with it. You don't have to be a Picasso to get some paint and paint something. Do it for the fun of it. The irony is that when you do it just for the love or the fun of it, it actually can become more than a hobby. Purposeful activity is the cure for the ills we've been talking about here. When you have a life, you don't need to envy the lives of others or engage in pointless competition leading nowhere.

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SILVERWOODSTUDIO

3/3/2016 12:18:24 PM

Yes Richard---Creativity is a key to self expression (having something to say) that comes from within ourselves.

So many prophets (politicians) merely repeat things they have read or heard, as their own opinion, and the general public often are tuned in to their fave News source Fox, CNN etc for information, and form their opinions from what can be spin or propaganda.

The creative mind is more curious, and looks behind and between the lines, and runs their own filter over it and is often more skeptical and less dogmatic.

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The Jay Dyall Project

3/4/2016 11:11:54 AM

Without intentions to offend anyone, but,
the same can be said about God, Jesus, Mohammed, etc.

The worshipping of religious deity, when applied to your personal life, can be fundamental. But on the flip side of that coin, it can lead to extremes.
It is what is happening all over the world today.
Since the beginning of recorded time, man has engaged in wars, genocide, plundering of other lands, all in the name of God.

This never ending war in Israel is a perfect example. A war over bragging rights of the Holy Land (Jerusalem) That's what it has been about for decades
(I am 51 years old and I first heard of it in 1st grade back in 1971)
And more recently for the past 10 years or so, is Islam versus Christianity and all other religions.

Apparently, based on the Bible and the Qur'an, violence is the way to spread the word. Most people do not read the Bible from Page One to the end. Otherwise they will see violent actions here and there, all in the name of God.
And even from God himself!

YOU can easily read it for yourself and see it is there, in print, for all to see. But many seem to gloss over it, ignoring certain passages. Or you can search the internet for these passages.
Here is one, a very interesting read:

http://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/atrocity.html

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Two Silo Complex

3/4/2016 12:11:14 PM

Actually never ending war in Israel is not a war over "bragging rights of the Holy Land (Jerusalem)" it is about the fact that according to the bible GOD gave this land to a certain sect and then MAN divided boundary lines and took away what GOD had declared.

Religion has been the cause of more wars and death that most other things but has also created things like providing for the needy feeding the hungry etc looking to one greater than ourselves etc.

So it should not come as a surprise to us that if we are modeled after GOD and GOD is a vengeful GOD who smites those that disobey him that our human nature follows the same. As for Adam and Eve there is much debate about why GOD allowed the serpent to trick ADAM and EVE when before this time they lived at one with him. Some argue that GOD created the divide so that the children would always have to come back to him. Some say that the devil created the divide with GODS permission to fulfill the prophecy.

As for Celebrity worship agree with Richard it is those that have a shallow existence that follow that path.

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The Jay Dyall Project

3/4/2016 12:51:03 PM

I took wondered about that part, "As for Adam and Eve there is much debate about why GOD allowed the serpent to trick ADAM and EVE"
Why did God create the serpent to begin with?

And the same with the Seven Deadly Sins,
why did God instill these characteristic in Man to begin with?

OK, maybe I said it wrong calling it "bragging rights", but it's still stupid to me how they fight and kill over a piece of land for so many years.

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Two Silo Complex

3/4/2016 1:28:09 PM

the war in Israel is about who owns the land and many wars have been fought about this same topic. (wars regarding rights to different lands) though in this case religion is mixed in because according to the bible this was the promised land that only that sect that was promised could own.

Here is the question that will really bake you brain if you want to think about it.
Not why did GOD create the serpent in the first place but when the serpent was created was it created evil and if all things created by GOD are good how could evil come from a good GOD? That is opposite of his nature.

So if GOD created the heavens and the earth and the angels and gave them free will who created evil? For if it was not in the angel Lucifer's heart which was given by GOD to be prideful where did it come from?

Second part the seven sins did not exist until the fall of man and then because man was fallen away from GOD he fell into sin. The seven sins were not part of mans original nature but were adopted with the fall of man.

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Larree

3/4/2016 1:40:41 PM

Evil is live backwards.

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Bryon Tosoff

3/4/2016 2:18:44 PM

so if you spell my name backwards you get some weird sounding name. wait this is about hero worship How we get this out of it.
lived = devil

any others up for grabs

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Father Time

3/4/2016 10:35:22 PM

My heroes:

Frank Underwood
Dexter
Tony Soprano
Walter White

:)

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