Feb 22, 2010 - A question in infamy

[Vector Prime]

"It has been far too long since I updated. You must forgive me, as time got away from me and I
have been engaged elsewhere. Pleasantries aside, shall we get to business?"

Mighty Vector Prime,

I notice that a common goal among most humans is to attain fame among their fellows. I also
notice that humans who achieve this goal nearly always suffer severe breakdowns as a result,
mentally, emotionally, and often physically. Can you explain to me why humans are so
determined to achieve fame or even infamy, even though they themselves profess to know the
devastating effects it can have?

Sincerely yours,
Anonymous.


"Hmn. An interesting thought. As I am not an anthropologist, I will seek to answer as best as I
can.
My most educated guess would be this : that as much as they may think they understand the
consequences, they do not believe they will succumb to it. Humans, being so short lived,
have a very odd sense of immortality that comes from the refusal to comprehend their own
life span. It is more important to have that recognition than to deny it for their own
mental health, another subject in which they are uncomfortable thinking about.
That, coupled with want for fortune and their deluded notions of grandeur, make any outcome
favorable to them.
To be fair, not all of them seek these things for selfish reasons, and some 'celebrities'
do not act in a disgraceful manner or suffer breakdowns. It is simply more discussed, as some
believe it more 'entertaining. Some seek it to help others of their race, using their little
power to raise awareness for causes, and their money to help the poor and needy. Due to the
glorification of this however, many humans posses a sort of jaded indifference that the whole
of their race is shameful and petty.
Instead of aid workers and awareness they get celebrity gossip and trash. It is painful to
watch so promising a species stoop so low, to see their tenacious determination wasted.

I thank you Anon for your rather interesting question.

Till All Are One,
Vector Prime."

[Coraxonyx]

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet XVIII--William Shakespeare