Lily Allen: “Fame has not brought me happiness”

LILY ALLEN WRITES: “I read your interview with Paris Hilton and I enjoyed it immensely. I regard myself as a more sophisticated celebrity than Paris Hilton. As a famous person myself, I note that all my fame has not made me happy (I refer you to the semi-ironic lyrics of my new song The Fear). What would the great philosophers have to say about this?”

BRIAN BARRINGTON, PHILOSOPHICAL COUNSELLOR TO THE STARS, REPLIES: Hi Lily. Yes, as one becomes more famous, diminishing returns set in. The famous become trapped in an ever-escalating struggle to achieve more fame. They become addicts. Have you ever met a person who once achieved fame and then lost it? They are the living dead. Nothing in their lives can compensate for the loss of the attention that they once had. Even worse, the currently famous need to engage in a desperate struggle to protect the fame they have, for fear that it will slip away from them. They live in terror, prisoners to their immoderate lust for rewards and honours. Fame is the most fickle of possessions. It can only be truly enjoyed by those who do not need it, since only they do not fear losing it. As the philosopher Spinoza said: “Fame has also this great drawback, that if we pursue it, we must direct our lives so as to please the fancy of men.”

However, the philosopher Hegel used the example of a professor of history who claims that Alexander the Great had a pathological love of fame and power. The professor proves that he himself does not suffer from this pathology, because he himself has not conquered Asia. Hegel says:

Alexander the Great is alleged to have acted from a craving for fame, for conquest; and the proof that these were the impelling motives is that he did that which resulted in fame. What pedagogue has not demonstrated of Alexander the Great - of Julius Caesar - that they were instigated by such passions, and were consequently immoral men, - whence the conclusion immediately follows that he, the pedagogue, is a better man than they, because he has not such passions; a proof of which lies in the fact that he does not conquer Asia.

I think Hegel is making an interesting point here: most human beings would, if given the choice, choose to be famous. The evidence of this is the omnipresence of envy and resentment towards famous people. Those who really believe that the famous have nothing worth possessing will be more likely to feel pity or indifference towards the famous, rather than envy. But, if we observe most humans, we see that they do envy famous and that their attempts to argue that the famous do not possess anything worthwhile are mostly attempts to console themselves for that fact that they have neither the ability nor the good fortune to be famous themselves.

So enjoy your fame while it lasts Lily. If thou didst not want it, then thou wouldst not seek it.