Would you want to be Michael Jackson-level famous — not necessarily from music, but from anything: social media, entertainment, or whatever? Would you want to be as famous as him? Why or why not?
No. The optimal (from a highly individual viewpoint) is being well-off, with friends but without fame.
From a societal viewpoint, the best is everyone being “upper middle class” - well off enough to live, but not so wealthy that one can simply mooch off others and give nothing back.
I’d love to have the money, but the notoriety? Hell no. The amount of money I’d have to waste on my personal security would be infuriating. I could use that money to actually do something useful, like making the kind of donation that lets a hospital charity make sensible medium-term plans.
Absolutely, it would be fun as hell.
How, though?
Absolutely not. I don’t want any level of fame. I like that I can freely walk around my hometown where I’ve lived for 35 years and nobody recognizes me and stops to talk.
I want to be tony hawk famous. Like famous enough that at relevant events people are stoked to see me, but out in public people are just like “has anyone ever told you that you kind of look like Art3mis” and if i said i am they are just like “haha suurrre”
“Are you Art3mis?” “yes” “Why?”
The rule is to always be richer than you are famous – for any value.
Thus, if I was Michael Jackson famous, I would need to be several-private-islands rich.
Of course, I wouldn’t have an island. But the bunker at the resort I own would be insane.
I’m a white guy who went to a wedding in rural India. That attention alone got to be a bit much after a few days.
Also, I would have to be stupidly careful about pretty much everything. Hackers would actually think to target me AND could have an incentive to do so knowing I’ve got money (gained by fraud or blackmail if I’m not careful). In my current life I go to clothing-optional places pretty regularly (not a sex club or anything) and that would pretty much have to stop.
Just let me be rich in a way that nobody knows it, preferably not even my own friends.
I don’t want any kind of notoriety. Good or bad. I delete accounts regularly to avoid it. I just want to be forgotten
Nope, I wouldn’t want to be famous at all. I like being able to mind my own business without being harassed or recognized on the street.
Even Michael Jackson, himself, grew to hate being that famous and often lamented it in interviews before he stopped giving them, and in the few he did give before his death.
fame becomes a curse to all
edit: I remember when he died… I was walking through Washington Square Park in NYC, and I got an alert on my phone. I was so stunned, that I sat own on the nearest bench and just stared at my phone. I noticed that everyone around me also got an alert, and they all just froze… Everyone around me just froze… The whole city just STOPPED IN PLACE. it freaked me out. Then the internet went down. I tried to call a friend, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t send a text or load a webpage… nothing worked for, like, half an hour. shit was fucked.
The only other time I remember something like that, when I couldn’t make a phone call/txt/use the internet was 9/11
I was the in ER outside Philadelphia and there were sheets between the beds. The TV was up above where we could all see it. About three beds over I heard “he bleached himself to death!”
How much of that bleaching was medical vs choice?
You don’t need to add “edit”. No one will ever know.
There’s an edit icon on that post…
And pointing out edits is good internet etiquette. Since edits don’t change replies, someone could edit their comment and make all the replies seem unrelated etc.
Do you really have nothing better to do than post pedantic, asshole replies like this?
Did you know edit is tide backwards?
tide comes in, edit goes out.
You can’t explain that.
Magnets man how do they work?
I was on a road trip to Arizona with my ex and heard it on the radio. The triple whammy with Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays made it pretty much all we heard on the news the entire time we were out west
I graduated highschool the day Micheal Jackson died
Fame seems like a burden. Given a choice, I’ll take the money.
No. Or at least, I’d have it done the way Daft Punk/Yoko Taro do. You’re only known as the character in costume, and not elsewise.
Otherwise, every single aspect of your life gets pried into, and you can’t trust anything to be what it seems to be. Anything you say, or opinion you hold would be a headline, and anyone who claims to want to be your friend could easily be angling for your wealth/connections more than anything else.
As MJ?
No. There are too many aspects of that level of fame that are not only undesirable, but dangerous, and we saw that with how his life went.
I wouldn’t mind being a one-hit wonder though. A couple of years of making millions and just stashing them away. I’d pull a Kerri Green and peace out at the height, take the money, and live off investment interest for the rest of my life. She only made like three movies, took the money, and told Hollywood to eff off.
It’s a shame MJ didn’t do that. Even after having to pay all the court settlements for broken contracts, he’d still have been alive and wealthy.
No. I like going out and not being bothered.
I’d like to be the producer, agent, etc of someone famous. (Not anything related to PR, though. I don’t want to downplay or “justify” some asshole’s crimes.)
Nobody outside the industry gives a fuck who those behind the scenes people are, but I’d still be pulling down the big bucks.
Sure… as a writer. Think like Stephen King. Probably the most famous living writer. Maybe James Patterson or Brandon Sanderson. They do cool shit and people recognize them for it. Doesn’t seem too bad. Has a famous author ever really had it too bad as far as fame goes? Look at Brandon Sanderson, he teaches other people about writing. Goes around talking about what he loves.
Unfortunately, I think JK Rowling might give Stephen King a challenge for the most famous living writer title. And she’s not using it for good.
Oof. Yeah. :(
