Becoming Fat and Dumb on Unreality

Andrew Wiles spent the better part of 10 years working tirelessly on mind numbing mathematics to develop a proof for Fermats Last Theorm. A staggering and breathtaking intellectual feat which pulled together enormously complex mathematics from many different disciplines and which required the invention of entirely new math. It was called the achievement of a century by the world's leading mathematicians.

Jacob Bolotin was born blind to poor parents in Chicago in 1988. Determined to "be of use" in the world, he rejected conventional wisdom on the aptitude and prospects of the blind and pursued education with fervor. Bolotin learned Braille and paid for his education by working part-time selling brushes and typewriters door-to-door. He fought his way into and through the elite Chicago College of Medicine, graduated with honors at twenty-four, and became the world's first totally blind physician fully licensed to practice medicine. Dr. Bolotin went on to become widely recognized as one of the top heart and lung specialists in the city.

The feats of these two individuals are impressive but they seemingly do not quite measure to MJ's moonwalk. They can't hold a candle to Mariah's octave range or Deniro's convincing role-playing abilities. They are not quite the catwalking skills of Naomi Campbell or the ball dribbling and dunking abilities of Lebron James.

As such, our airwaves remain reserved for these latter paragons of achievement. The cameras, always on and rolling, capture their every important moment - their mesmerizing expressions on the sidelines of the US Open, their dazzling smiles and perfect gaits on the red carpet of their self-adulating award shows, their late night smooches with belle or beau of the month. The media, knowing their audience's propensity to consume like teenage girls, keeps the show going - we dolts remain transfixed, dreaming of one day getting a taste of the fabulous ourselves.

While Brittney's panties and haircuts are covered in news story after news story, Andrew Wiles and Jacob Bolotin remain anonymous and completely outside of the mainstream consciousness. The important content which has the potential to advance the collective intellect and maturity of a nation gets shelved and OJ's thievery of memorabilia gets around the clock coverage.

And we wonder why America's children have fallen so badly behind the rest of the world in academics. We wonder how two thirds of our population became obese?

When we've been dumbed down so much that we would rather know about Brad and Jen's secret phone conversation than the remarkable and exciting breakthroughs and achievements of human intellect and ingenuity, what are we to expect of our population but stupidity and obesity?

According to a recent study published by James Houran, a clinical psychologist and the joint creator of the Celebrity Worship Scale, roughly one third of us posses "celebrity worship syndrome" - an unhealthy interest in the lives of the rich and famous. But it seems to register on the interest scale of the average American and to be worthy of worship - sex and sexiness, scandal and sizzle must be ones main contribution to society. If you're a chain smoking, womanizing mediocre actor with good looks, chances are you'll make more magazine covers than the scientist who cracked the human genome.

Hollywood and Madison Avenue are well aware of these primal propensities and exploit it to their maximum commercial benefit. Carrie Bradshaw's wardrobe is carefully crafted to be emulated by millions of adoring women - their credit cards are maxed out on the latest must-haves at Loius Vutton and Jimmy Choo.

Daniel Boorstin, the American historian, lawyer and author, argued in his 1961 book "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America", that America was living in an "age of contrivance, in which illusions and fabrications had become a dominant force in society." He stated that public life was filled with counterfeit events and counterfeit people - celebrities - whose identities were being staged and scripted to create and illusion which had no relationship to reality. "Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused," he wrote. "Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety."

What we are witnessing is the intellectual decline of an entire society - people are becoming fat and dumb on unreality. When he forgot what made him the heavy weight champion of the world, Rocky Balboa got his head bashed in and lay helplessly on the floor for the full ten-count. I wonder what success induced lethargy has in store for us?