Do Fame And Fortune Bring Happiness?
In the streets of Bogota, Colombia, the hot sun beats down upon a woman. In her arms lies a boy drenched in a mixture of blood and tears. His cold body is riddled with bullet wounds- no doubt the result of being caught in a crossfire of a gunfight between the various drug cartels of Colombia. Such gangland wars are so common in this part of Colombia that they may be likened to seeing aeroplanes in the sky. The woman silently prays that her son would safely make his journey to heaven’s gates. The only thing that could bring her happiness at that precise moment is her son coming back to life and herself dying in his place- such is the unconditional love of a mother. Fame and fortune are furthest from her mind in the cushioning of her grief. In these tough streets of Colombia, happiness is just being able to survive one more day without being at the receiving end of a bullet in the head as in the case of other places as well which are ravaged by perennial threats such as natural disasters and war. In these places, fame and fortune seem like stuff straight out of a Tolkien fantasy.
Happiness is such an abstract concept that if you asked a thousand people for their definition of ‘happiness’ you may well get a thousand different answers. Its components are as diverse as the cultures of the world. Some people are satisfied with just staying alive whereas others will not rest until they get that luxurious house by the beach. Fame and fortune are merely players in the field called “Determinants of Happiness”. Fame is attained when a person becomes well-known or is often talked about. Fortune refers to the material well-being of people in the form of wealth, possessions and money. Today’s materialistic society tends to believe that those two things are the only things that could ever provide happiness but do they even bring about true happiness in the first place? This we shall discover after we examine fame and fortune individually.
The very mention of the word ‘fame’ leads us to associate it with such luminaries like movie stars River Phoenix, Tom Cruise, Marian Dietrich, Lauren Bacall, Andy Lau, Humphrey Bogart, sports stars such as Diego Maradona, Ronaldo, Michael Jordan and Yao Ming and even famous political leaders such as Deng Xiaoping, Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler. These people are famous (or infamous) for achievements in their respective fields. Yet to what extent did their fame bring them happiness? Maradona and River Phoenix were victims of their own fame. They took drugs and eventually ruined their careers and in River’s case ended his life- all this due to their “overexposure” to the public in their younger days leaving them psychologically unstable in their later years. The very same people who had heaped praise upon them earlier had now turned their backs on them and criticized them for every mistake they made. With such sorrow that fame brings, who would even dare to associate it with happiness? Nonetheless, there are people who manage fame very well and are all the better for it. They take fame with a pinch of salt and are now seemingly happy people. People such as Tom Hanks and Andy Lau are just some names on this list. However, such people never seem to attribute happiness to the fame they attained but instead list the often clichéd ‘simpler things in life’ as the things that make them happy. So where then does fame play a part in contributing to happiness?
With fame also comes the need for inconspicuousness in public. Many stars have lamented the fact that such a price is too huge to pay for fame. They are unable to to go to their favourite restaurants, funfairs or newspaper stands for fear of being recognized. They have to ask people to either buy food for them or deliver food to their homes. In a way, their freedom is restricted due to public scrutiny. Surely we do not want to be prisoners to our own fame- the very same fame we reaped with sweat and blood? But that is exactly what will happen to us when we become famous. It will take us twice the time to do our shopping in the supermarket as every other customer is a potential autograph hound. This is not yet taking into consideration stalkers who might follow you, tap into your phonelines- in short, invading your privacy. Every corner, every turn is met with suspicion and anxiety because who knows, one day, a crazed fan might just cut you up and cook you in curry to forever be part of him/herself. What a life a celebrity must endure; no doubt a glamorous one but a happy one? I doubt so, unless you enjoy being cooked in curry.
The television has been our window to the private lives of many of the richest people in the world, such as Bill Gates, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Warren Buffett just to name a few. If my memory serves me right, none of them looked to happy about being interviewed with serious faces hidden beneath painfully constructed smiles. In fact some of them were glancing around suspiciously around them. Little wonder that with so many millions of dollars bulging out from their pockets, they might even suspect the cameraman of being a potential kidnapper or robber who could take their possessions away from them in the blink of an eye. If they are even ‘luckier’ they may just win a one-way trip to the netherworld while being robbed. Thus a lot of light is shed upon the often heard saying that “the more you have, the more you worry”. As you worry, not even the funniest clowns you pay or the most expensive food in the world can make you happy.
With all the points I mentioned earlier, it does seem that instead of bringing happiness, fame and fortune bring a lot of grief and sorrow. So why are millions of people around the world so convinced that fame and fortune can bring happiness? This, I believe, is merely due to the illusion that fame and fortune bring happiness. However, in actual fact, I think that the pursuit of fame and fortune may be the answer behind this mystery. This is because in the pursuit of fame and fortune, our minds become preoccupied with the hope of a better life leading us to think that fame and fortune are the things that will make us happy. It is always a comforting feeling just knowing that you still have hope to achieve something in this world. The more unrealistic the dream, the better it is for us as then we could have an aim that could keep us preoccupied for life. Thus it can be seen that fame and fortune by themselves may not bring happiness after all.
Fame and fortune are seen as things that cannot bring happiness because they are temporary in nature- as they say “You can’t take it with you” However, the nature of some people is such that their faces will light up at the sight of gold (and this not because of the gleaming qualities of the metal either) Some tribes which have never even heard of either fame or fortune, such as the Yali tribe in Irian Jaya, live in perfect harmony and absolute bliss. The leaders of such tribes believe that if such concepts were introduced within the tribe, then jealousy and strife will divide their people and their happiness- lost. The Norwegian heavy metal band, “Hammerfall” offers useful advice in the chorus of its song, “Glory to the Brave”- “Nothing on Earth is forever but none of your deeds are in vain”. If we could use our fame and fortune to make a difference to contribute to the various charities that are struggling to stay afloat, then a sort of self-satisfaction creeps into us- something we usually call “happiness”. This type of happiness lasts forever as it is a happiness that is shared.