Brenden Nemeth-Brown Nemeth-Brown is an
economics and political science student who enjoys long walks on
the beach. E-mail him at [email protected].
Click Here for more articles by Brenden Nemeth-Brown
Looking around my apartment, I realize I will never fit in at
UCLA. I do not have the requisite Salvador Dalà or Vincent Van
Gogh posters. I do, on the other hand, have two prints on my wall
of two very different people. On the left, looking radiant and
fervently passionate, stands Kurt Cobain. On the right, with head
bowed in deep thought, sits John F. Kennedy. The most striking
similarity between the two photographs is that both have a shining
white light beaming down upon their subject’s heads. It looks
as if both men have halos.
Was this intentional? Have these heroes to so many young men and
women taken on a more spiritual quality? It seems we have now begun
to place pop culture icons on the same level as religious icons.
More people are looking to media for icons, for the waning power of
the Catholic church cannot keep up with the ever-changing demand of
the public. Before the advent of modern media, Christ was depicted
in more images than any other person. Today he cannot compete with
a Cobain or a Kennedy.
Media has turned mortal men into immortal gods. Despite the fact
that both Cobain and Kennedy had their shortcomings, we seem to
brush them away and concentrate on their more admirable qualities.
Cobain was a master at turning his self-destructive tendencies into
beautiful and thoughtful music. Sadly, these same tendencies also
got the best of him and caused his death.
Kennedy was charismatic and confident, which made him a
political force to fear. But again, these same skills also lent
themselves well to his womanizing. While scandalous in its day,
most people now would applaud Kennedy’s affair with Marilyn
Monroe. If Bill Clinton can maintain a 60 percent approval rating
and have an affair with Monica Lewinsky, Kennedy would probably
have ticker-tape parades thrown in his honor if he were alive.
I have even heard the term “martyr” being used to
describe Cobain and Kennedy. When did such men with glaring
problems ascend to sainthood? With the advent of mass-produced
images. I perpetuate this blasphemy by having their images in my
apartment. Once you take a man and strip him of his environment and
individuality by placing him on a wall, he no longer resembles a
man. He has become more abstract, more of an ideal than a man. He
has become an idol.
 Illustration by JARRETT QUON/Daily Bruin Picture Cobain
in front of thousands of fans, screaming along to his sorrow-laced,
yet angry, lyrics. Picture Kennedy standing before thousands with
everybody straining to hear him utter his next syllable. These men
wielded enormous power and influence, so much so that even after
their death their music and words live on. Not only do they live
on, but you can access them 24 hours a day from a plethora of
different Web sites, books and compact discs. Christ never had it
this good.
Which brings us back to him now. How has he fallen so far in the
public’s eye? Attendance at church is at an all-time low and
according to Pat Robertson, immorality is at an all time high. So
what gives?
People have slowly become disillusioned with the church as its
stranglehold on the consciousness of the western world has receded.
With a closer examination of its past actions, people were outraged
that priests could sell absolution for five bucks a pop. And even
while some deviated from the church when Martin Luther made these
atrocities known, these same puritans didn’t jump ship when
“civilized” Christians were “killing in the name
of God” during the Crusades.
As church and state slowly separated themselves in America,
England and France, men and women began to branch out from the
suffocating gas that surrounded Vatican City. By the end of the
19th century, Nietzsche had already proclaimed God to be dead.
Around this same time, photography was born and has changed the way
we see, interact and judge people.
And this is where we are today: alone and without a true
figurehead to praise. Luckily mass media knows what’s best
for us and has given us thousands of writers, poets, politicians,
musicians and actors to admire. Who needs God when you have Britney
Spears?
All sarcasm aside, there is a sad reality present in
today’s world. We no longer have one idol; we have thousands.
Maybe this is a good thing, a refreshing change from the
brainwashing that has been perpetuated by a sordid church for so
long. Or maybe this is a bad thing and we no longer have a moral
compass except our remote controls.
Perhaps we’ve become unwilling to give the intangible a
chance. Perhaps it’s safer to hold on to reality than to
venture a little deeper and examine what’s beneath it.
Perhaps neither makes a difference because if we all want to live
just lives, it doesn’t matter if their sources are natural or
supernatural.
So take what you will from whom you will. Whether it be
Cobain’s passion, Kennedy’s charisma or the good spirit
of religious dogma, it does not make a difference. We choose idols
for the certain characteristics they embody from which we wish to
learn. As long as you continue to learn the good ones, it does not
matter if the idol is false or not.
I want to clarify that I’m not lamenting the demise of
religion; I’m lamenting the demise of spirituality. Whether
that be worldly or non-worldly, I’m not sure if it makes a
difference. But what I see exhibited through media on a daily basis
makes me ill. I can almost taste the acid in my throat. We live in
a time where everything is for sale and anyone can be made an idol
with a 15-minute lifetime.
How is it that I even know the name of Richard Hatch? I never
even watched Survivor and yet I cannot even go to Ralph’s
without seeing his ghastly face on some $3 glossy magazine. What
disturbs me even more is that he will probably write a book and
people will buy it.
Idols are not bad, but they are dangerous. I would not have
wanted to live either Cobain’s or Kennedy’s life, but I
feel their respective experiences have changed humanity for the
better. Whether it was eloquently communicating grief or having the
strength to push through the civil rights legislation, these men
added something that I feel was worthy to society.
In the deep cold sea that is media, there will always be idols
beckoning at you to admire them. There will be personified Towers
of Babylon and there will be prophets. Without a religious
figurehead, you will be left groping in the dark, searching for
idols. But after 2,000 years of being led by our collective manes,
maybe it’s the best thing for us.