[00:00.00]Lesson Two Text
[00:04.41]Icons Heroes and Cultural Icons
[00:11.36]Gary Goshgarian
[00:14.84]If you were asked to list ten American heroes and heroines,
[00:22.00]you would probably name some or all of the following:
[00:27.32]George Washington,Abraham Lincoln,Daniel Boone,Martin Luther King Jr.
[00:36.49]Amelia Earhart,Susan B Anthony, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,
[00:43.94]Helen Keller,Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Rosa Parks.
[00:51.70]If next you were asked to list people who are generally admired by society,
[00:58.04]who somehow seem bigger than life,
[01:02.01]you might come up with an entirely different list.
[01:06.46]You might,in fact,name people who are celebrated for their wealth and glamour
[01:13.30]rather than their achievements and moral strength of character.
[01:19.05]And you would not be alone,because pollsters have found
[01:25.52]that people today do not choose political leaden who shape history for their "Most Admired" list,
[01:32.66]but rather movie and television celebrities fashion models,
[01:39.60]professional athletes,and even comic book and cartoon characters.
[01:46.16]In short media icons.
[01:51.02]By definition, heroes and heroines are men and women
[01:58.28]distinguished by uncommon courage achievements,
[02:03.43]and self sacrifice made most often for the benefit of others
[02:09.70]—they are people against whom we measure others.
[02:14.06]They are men and women recognized for shaping our nation's consciousness
[02:21.43]and development as well as the lives of those who admire them.
[02:27.59]Yet,some people say that ours is an age where true heroes and heroines
[02:34.36]are hard to come by,
[02:37.91]where the very ideal of heroism is something beyond us
[02:43.19]— an artifact of the past.
[02:46.74]Some maintain that because the Cold War is over
[02:52.20]and because America is at peace our age is essentially an unheroic one.
[02:59.33]Furthermore, the overall crime rate is down,
[03:04.58]poverty has been eased by a strong and growing economy,
[03:09.54]and advances continue to be made in medical science.
[03:15.11]Consequently, bereft of cultural heroes,
[03:19.94]we have latched onto cultural icons
[03:23.99]— media superstars such as actors,actresses,
[03:29.35]sports celebrities,television personalities,
[03:34.49]and people who are simply famous for being famous.
[03:39.92]Cultural icons are harder to define,but we know them when we see them.
[03:46.98]They are people who manage to transcend celebrity,
[03:52.44]who are legendary, who somehow manage to become mythic.
[03:58.60]But what makes some figures icons and others mere celebrities?
[04:05.97]That's hard to answer.
[04:09.00]In part, their lives have the quality of a story.
[04:14.56]For instance, the beautiful young Diana Spencer
[04:20.49]who at 19 married a prince,
[04:24.86]bore a king, renounced marriage and the throne,
[04:30.60]and died at the moment she found true love.
[04:34.96]Good looks certainly help.
[04:38.52]So does a special indefinable charisma,with the help of the media.
[04:46.09]But nothing becomes an icon more than a tragic and early death
[04:53.64]such as Martin Luther King Jr.John F.Kennedy and Princess Diana.
[05:01.09]Being Somebody Donna Wool folk Cross
[05:06.73]One hundred years ago,people became famous for what they had achieved.
[05:13.29]Men like j.P. Morgan,E.H. Harriman and Jay Gould were all notable achievers.
[05:22.04]So were Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, and Susan B. Anthony.
[05:29.12]Their accomplishments are still evident in bur own day.
[05:34.47]Today's celebrities, however,
[05:38.60]often do not become known for any enduring achievement.
[05:43.75]The people we most admire today
[05:48.00]are usually those who are most highly publicized by the media.
[05:53.04]In 1981,a Gallup poll revealed that Nancy Reagan was the nation's"most admired woman."but today he'd be dragging his bottom in the ratings.
[06:03.91]The year before,that distinction went to President Carter's wife, Rosalynn.
[06:11.07]In fact,the wife of the current president
[06:15.64]is always one of the nation's most admired women.
[06:20.60]Today's celebrities,as the writer Daniel Boorstin says,
[06:26.77]are "people well-known for their well-knownness.
[06:31.21]"To become such a celebrity, one needs luck, not accomplishment.
[06:37.98]As Boorstin says,"The hero was distinguished by his accomplishment;
[06:44.74]the celebrity by his image or trademark.
[06:49.47]The hero created himself;the celebrity is created by the media.
[06:57.20]The hero was a big man the celebrity is a big name.
[07:03.76]"There is another distinction:
[07:07.00]heroes inspire respect;celebrities inspire envy.
[07:13.53]Few of us believe we could be another Jonas Salk or Eleanor Roosevelt,
[07:20.29]but we could be another TV star like Telly Savalas or Suzanne Somers.
[07:27.66]Except for the attention they get from the media,
[07:31.71]these people are exactly like us.
[07:36.28]The shift from hero-worship to celebrity worship
[07:40.93]occurred around the turn of the century.
[07:44.77]It was closely tied to the rise of new forms of media
[07:49.73]— first photography,and later moving pictures, radio and television.
[07:57.28]For the first time,Americans could see and recognize their heroes.
[08:03.81]Previously,men like Gould and Harriman,whose names everyone knew,
[08:10.89]could easily have passed through a crowd without being recognized.
[08:16.64]The reproduction of photos in newspapers turned famous people into celebrities
[08:25.08]whose dress,appearance and personal,habits were widely commented upon.
[08:32.91]Slowly,the focus of public attention began to shift away from knowing what such people did
[08:40.36]to knowing what they looked like.
[08:44.02]The shift was accelerated by the arrival of moving pictures.
[08:49.58]Between 1901 and 1914,74 percent of the magazine articles about famous people
[08:58.65]were about political leaders, inventors,professionals,and businessmen.
[09:04.89]After 1922, however,most articles were about movie stars.
[09:11.86]With the arrival of television,the faces of the stars
[09:17.22]became as familiar as those we saw across the breakfast table.
[09:22.55]We came to know more about the lives of the celebrities
[09:28.19]than we did about most of the people we know personally.
[09:32.94]Less than seventy years after the appearance of the first moving pictures,
[09:38.80]the shift from hero-worship to celebrity-worship was complete.
[09:45.17]Today an appearance on a television talk show
[09:50.42]is the ultimate proof of "making it" in America.
[09:55.15]Actually, the term "talk show" is misleading.
[10:00.92]Celebrities do not appear on such a program
[10:05.28]because of an actual desire —or ability — to talk,
[10:10.56]but simply to gain recognition,and prove,merely by showing up,
[10:18.29]that they are "somebody. "
[10:22.13]Being a guest on a talk show does not require qualities of wit,
[10:27.28] eloquence,brilliance, insight, or intelligence.
[10:33.44]A former talent coordinator for "the Tonight Show,"
[10:37.88]says that when he would ask a scheduled guest,
[10:42.14]"What would you like to talk to the host about?"
[10:45.98]the reply he got most often was,
[10:49.95]"Have him ask me anything."
[10:53.40]This, he says, usually meant,
[10:56.88]"I am a typical Hollywood actor,
[11:01.24]so I have never had an original thought
[11:05.99]and I have nothing to say of any interest to anyone anywhere.
[11:11.74]Most hosts are grateful just to get someone who will fill the room with sound.
[11:18.27]One talk show coordinator comments,
[11:22.63]"We look for the guest who is sure to talk no matter what.
[11:27.60]Ten seconds of silence appears very awkward on television;
[11:32.85]thirty seconds is disastrous.
[11:36.82]A guest who's got to stop to think about everything he says
[11:41.78]before he opens his mouth is a ratings nightmare.
[11:47.74]"This kind of attitude rewards smooth,insincere talk,
[11:53.01]and makes hesitancy look like stupidity.
[11:57.27]"We wouldn't have used George Washington on our show,"
[12:01.40]says one talent coordinator.
[12:04.66]"He might have been first in the hearts of his countrymen,
[12:08.92]but today he'd be dragging his bottom in the ratings.
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