My cynicism about the cult of celebrity in our society is such that it would not surprise me to learn that kids trust their favorite movie or rock star more than they trust their parents or pastor/priest/rabbi.
It would be one thing if I could dismiss this plainly misplaced trust as a teenage rite of passage. But the sad truth is that adults are no less gullible.
In fact, even politicians elected to govern for the general welfare are so star-struck they would happily spend hours listening to the lyrical pronouncements of a rock star on poverty alleviation. Whereas they would not give a Nobel Prize-winning economist one minute to educate them on the macroeconomic policies required to do so.
It is a sad commentary on the state of world affairs that the political initiatives of a movie or rock star are taken more seriously than those of a seasoned statesman. But that is the perverse reality when it comes to the global fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS and unconscionable poverty throughout the developing world.
How else can one explain the President of Sierra Leone drooling over Angelina Jolie last week as he promised HER immediate action on redressing human rights abuses in his country – after rejecting repeated appeals by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa to do just that…
Alas, worshiping celebrities is not merely the avocation of giddy teenage girls; world leaders seem equally enthralled by these latter-day-performing saints.
(“Celebrity-Obsessed World Has Made Actors and Rock Stars Statesmen of Our Time,” The iPINIONS Journal, May 23, 2005)
Therefore, it came as no surprise to me that, according to a highly reliable poll in the June 2013 issue of Reader’s Digest, the three most trusted people in America are Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, and Denzel Washington.
To understand how our trust instinct shapes our culture, we compiled a list of over 200 American opinion shapers and headline makers from 15 highly influential professions. Then we polled a nationally representative sample of over 1,000 American adults, asking them to rank each person based on trustworthiness.
Mind you, people were asked to base their ranking on “integrity, character, exceptional talent, drive to personal excellence, internal moral compass, message, honesty and leadership.” All of which, ironically, are qualities one would expect to find more in a person who takes an oath to honor the public’s trust than in one who gets paid to make the public believe things that are not real.
Yet, of the top 10 most trusted people, six are movie stars and one is a movie director. By contrast, only one active politician was trustworthy enough to even make the list of 100, and that is no less a person than the president of the United States, Barack Obama, who ranked a lowly 65th.
Apropos of my diss above of religious leaders, perhaps Obama can derive some consolation from knowing that he is more trustworthy than Billy Graham, the reputed pastor to presidents, who ranked 67th. But the only consolation I derived from reviewing this list is that the American people were at least smart enough not to include a single Republican….
That said, honorable mention goes to First Lady Michelle Obama who ranked 19th; to former President Jimmy Carter who ranked 24th (although he is far more known today for his charitable and humanitarian work than for his politics); and to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who ranked 51st (which I suppose holds her in enviable stead to launch her campaign to replace the 65th-ranked Obama in 2016).
Related commentaries:
Celebrity-obsessed world…
Reader’s Digest