Kaye Trammell is one of
the nicest folks out there. She studies celebrity, and
celebrities blogging, and so forth. She is also a public affairs
officer in the Navy Reserve, and gave an appreciative link to my piece
last night about the Open Source Naval Intelligence blog.
Speaking of celebrity, I wonder if those who are becoming celebrities
in the blogging world could give more thought to their own new found
power, responsibilities, and opportunities to help others. My
sense is that there are a number of folks who could do with a bit of
personal ethical reflection (myself included). We need to do some
thinking about our individual and community values, and what sort of
future we want to create for ourselves.
You can laugh about the ethics of Hollywood and hip-hop-wood and so forth, but “real”
celebrities are encouraged to think about their celebrity-hood, and the
best one’s make something positive of it.
Almost 20 years ago in 1984 Stevie Wonder spoke (yes, spoke) at Harvard Law School,
invited by the graduating class. He talked about attention, and the special
energy, borne of attention, that comes to celebrities and how, fair or not, it brings real
power to a few individuals in our society. For him, attention
came to him as “Little Stevie Wonder” at age 12.
When fame strikes, Stevie said, each of us have just three
choices. We can reject fame, in which case eventually the world
turns away and the power of celebrity-hood goes away. We can
accept fame and use it’s special energy for our own selfish ends.
Stevie Wonder noted that doing this usually drives the person insane. (Hmmm, so that’s what happens..)
Or we can accept fame but consciously turn it’s energy around and give
generously to others. We can become redirectors of energy.
In the blog world, I suppose this includes redirecting of “flow.”
And it also means using our leadership opportunities to build the
community, not to build just ourselves and our allies.
Remarkably, Stevie Wonder’s talk is available in Quicktime video at the WGBH web site. It is also available in audio on RealAudio at the Berkman Center site. I recommend it highly!
For a current example of the third path, check out Missy Elliot’s refreshing path to celebrity in today’s NYT.
I think that Dave’s recent concerns about “working together” are
concerns that blogging community celebrities embrace their leadership and find Stevie Wonder’s
third path. BTW, not easy for Hollywood stars, not easy for Dave, and not easy for any of the rest of us–stars or not.