The Celebrity I'll Never Be
In life, if you're easily satisfied with yourself and/or mediocrity, you have very little to worry about.
But should you one day find your inner aspirant, I'm starting to think that the city where you end up living really affects who you become.
While it's true that urban cities in America are becoming more and more superimposable, the one thing that drives every American city is its unique elitism, each catering to a different flavor of aspiration. For New York, all it takes is a smattering of Conde Nast to adequately acquaint yourself with the upper crust. In Boston, elitism has that good old old-boys feel, with networking at the Harvard Club interspersed throughout the week. In Texas, it's the showmanship of second rate gala charity events with muted conservative underpinnings. And in LA, you don't have to be A-list, but pretty much the 'elite' run from Courtney Love on up.
And while I could always regret not being a Harvard old boy, with crooked teeth and an ethnicity that doesn't do well on screen, I'm pretty sure I'll never be a celebrity. And that's why I'm moving to Los Angeles -- because I don't have to worry about aspiring to anything -- LA elitism will always be foreign to me, and that's the way I like it. So I will spend the next decade of my life there, enjoying the weather and enduring the perpetual exhiliration of conversations about celebrity restaurant sightings.
On another note, Saturdays are spent sitting at a desk in my dorm, opening the door for people. Today, I watched The Godfather for the first time, and decided to stick with the genre for both cultural and manhood reasons. And now, a young man is now relentlessly practicing 'Canon in D' on the piano in the cafeteria. Only he's not very good at it. And he keeps playing it, 15-20 minutes on end. Of 'Canon in D.' Just doesn't get much worse than this. Oh wait, my bad, he's playing "Chariots of Fire" now.
Last night was a grad student party with some of the labmates. And it's amusing for me to delve into a scientific conversation, because it seems to make people more uncomfortable. As if they have to go to the bathroom, because they can't be seen talking about science when they're at a party for fear of social ostracism for being a nerd. Frankly, if you want to get out of grad school in a reasonable amount of time, being a nerd is a very good thing. Working on that.
On a related note, Back Bay apartments make me want to be rich.
But should you one day find your inner aspirant, I'm starting to think that the city where you end up living really affects who you become.
While it's true that urban cities in America are becoming more and more superimposable, the one thing that drives every American city is its unique elitism, each catering to a different flavor of aspiration. For New York, all it takes is a smattering of Conde Nast to adequately acquaint yourself with the upper crust. In Boston, elitism has that good old old-boys feel, with networking at the Harvard Club interspersed throughout the week. In Texas, it's the showmanship of second rate gala charity events with muted conservative underpinnings. And in LA, you don't have to be A-list, but pretty much the 'elite' run from Courtney Love on up.
And while I could always regret not being a Harvard old boy, with crooked teeth and an ethnicity that doesn't do well on screen, I'm pretty sure I'll never be a celebrity. And that's why I'm moving to Los Angeles -- because I don't have to worry about aspiring to anything -- LA elitism will always be foreign to me, and that's the way I like it. So I will spend the next decade of my life there, enjoying the weather and enduring the perpetual exhiliration of conversations about celebrity restaurant sightings.
On another note, Saturdays are spent sitting at a desk in my dorm, opening the door for people. Today, I watched The Godfather for the first time, and decided to stick with the genre for both cultural and manhood reasons. And now, a young man is now relentlessly practicing 'Canon in D' on the piano in the cafeteria. Only he's not very good at it. And he keeps playing it, 15-20 minutes on end. Of 'Canon in D.' Just doesn't get much worse than this. Oh wait, my bad, he's playing "Chariots of Fire" now.
Last night was a grad student party with some of the labmates. And it's amusing for me to delve into a scientific conversation, because it seems to make people more uncomfortable. As if they have to go to the bathroom, because they can't be seen talking about science when they're at a party for fear of social ostracism for being a nerd. Frankly, if you want to get out of grad school in a reasonable amount of time, being a nerd is a very good thing. Working on that.
On a related note, Back Bay apartments make me want to be rich.
posted by devdoot majumdar at 8:24 AM
2 Comments:
Interesting analysis Dev, but are you really looking at the right things? Lets see:
mediocrity - the state or quality of being mediocre.
mediocre - moderate to inferior in quality; ordinary.
elitism - the belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
All right, so one has to do with achievement and the other with perception. In my view, these concepts are completely independent. One says "do I care about impressing myself with what I have done?" The other says "do I care about impressing other people with what I have done?" Independent questions. I think your whole analysis of what city to live in is only important if you answer to the second question is YES, but is independent of your answer to the first question. Don't you think?
Gevorg.
Independent, but related.
My point is that if you are self-satisfied (you love yourself, your deeds, etc), then there is a very low chance that you will care about other people's opinion of you.
But, if you don't love yourself, and you become someone who continuously aspires for something... chances are that you're not doing it so you can be self-satisfied, but so that people love you.
i'm afraid the point is not a strong one. the argument i made concerns itself with the opinion of others.
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