[Paleopsych] Re: Tortured Souls & Eunuchs at Orgies...yet more

[HowlBloom at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/3/2005 8:08:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
joe at quirk.net writes:

"Once  you win, you've got a reputation to live up to, even if you weren't so 
 inclined, you get surrounded by an entourage that's also heavily invested in 
 your reputation," said Redelmeier. "So you end up sleeping properly every  
night, eating well, exercising regularly every day

This statement, as you've pointed out, Joe, is riddled with not-so-hidden  
assumptions.  Getting a reputation to live up to would make some folks edgy  as 
hell--and nearly suicidal if they couldn't live up to their previous  
achievements and seemed to be slipping badly.  
 
Some folks feel utterly isolated and unwanted even when they're surrounded  
by an entourage.  Some wonder if the entourage is simply there for the  glory 
of association with a big name or is really there for THEM, for the inner  
human stripped of his or her fame and accomplishments.
 
And some folks feel utterly bereft when the reach a pinnacle.  They  feel 
they have nothing new to strive for, and the goal-lessness leaves them  drowning 
in the acid of depression.
 
I've seen all these things happen to the stars I've worked with.
 
Which means that how you take winning an Oscar is a matter of  perception.  
Some folks can see new horizons beckoning from even the worst  of things.  
Others can see new hells in even the greatest glories.
 
My guess, a hypothesis to consider, is that those who see the best in  what's 
around them, those who see opportunities even in catastrophe, are most  
likely to attract the kind of popularity among Academy of Motion Picture Arts  and 
Sciences members that makes an Oscar possible.   Howard

 
----------
Howard Bloom
Author of The Lucifer Principle: A  Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of 
History and Global Brain: The Evolution  of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the 
21st Century
Visiting Scholar-Graduate  Psychology Department, New York University; Core 
Faculty Member, The Graduate  Institute
www.howardbloom.net
www.bigbangtango.net
Founder:  International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic 
of Evolution  Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The 
Big Bang Tango  Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American 
Association for the  Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society, 
Academy of Political  Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International 
Society for Human  Ethology; advisory board member: Youthactivism.org; 
executive editor -- New  Paradigm book series.
For information on The International Paleopsychology  Project, see: 
www.paleopsych.org
for two chapters from 
The Lucifer  Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, 
see  www.howardbloom.net/lucifer
For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of  Mass Mind from the Big 
Bang to the 21st Century, see  www.howardbloom.net

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