Being famous

Montaigne begins his essay “Not to communicate one’s glory” (Essays, Book I-41) with the words: “Of all the follies of the world, that which is most universally received is the solicitude of reputation and glory”. The last thing people want to give up, so Montaigne, is the idea of becoming famous and, following Cicero, Montaigne writes: “even those who most controvert it, would yet that the books they write about it should visit the light under their own names, and seek to derive glory from seeming to despise it.” Now, I think that there is much truth in it, although I also think that for a kind of person like me it would be a torture to be really famous, and it is something I would avoid to become. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t publish a book without my name on the cover, so that everybody knows that it is me who has written it, and I don’t want that someone uses my photos without referring to me as the photographer. And didn’t also Montaigne himself have his name printed on the cover of his Essays? Nevertheless, it is as if Montaigne will make us think that trying to be famous is mere vanity and something that must be disapproved of. I agree that striving for fame only because of the fact itself is vanity, but I think that at least being a little bit famous, or at least being known, has also positive sides: it opens doors. Often people cannot reach their goals because nobody knows them and because just for this reason they are not taken seriously. Once people know you, or rather they have heard of you, they tend to listen better to you and are more disposed to help (and maybe they even think that they can profit by helping you). This doesn’t imply, of course, that your goals are worth to be achieved for the simple reason that you are known.
However, some people like it to be famous, since they see it as an intrinsic positive value. For them being a celebrity is not an agony but a joy. Moreover, its open doors, and the more famous you are, the more doors can be opened. It gives you power. But there is a risk, for don’t we say that power corrupts? Of course, this is not always the case but it often happens. The Me-Too affaires are a case in point. Actually, it is something like the Peter Principle. The Peter Principle, developed by Peter Hull and explained in his book The Peter Principle (written together with Raymond Hull) tells us that “in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”. As the Wikipedia explains: “Employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.” To my mind, this principle is not only valid for employees, but the phenomenon is general: People who strive to rise socially tend to reach a level that is that high that they cannot bear the burdens of this high position any longer or that they tend to overestimate themselves. Again the Me-Too affaires are exemplary.
So, the Peter Principle is not only restricted to employees. We can also apply it to celebrities, and generally to people who have come at the top and have got power. As for the latter, I think that the Peter Principle applies especially to people with power in authoritarian structures; in closed structures, to paraphrase Karl Popper. For where authoritarianism reigns and openness or democracy is absent, criticism is absent as well; and where criticism is absent, people cannot be corrected for their mistakes. Authoritarian leaders become isolated, are cut off from criticism, tend to box up themselves in their ivory towers, and become closed off from reality. And finally they are toppled. We see it in organisations, where managers are often dismissed for that reason and we see it in politics as well. Look around: How many authoritarian political leaders reach the end of their careers in a normal way? Stalin was one of the few who “peacefully” died in his bed. Most are chased away, if not killed, by the rising men under them, or by the people.
Once being famous, people often want to become more famous, for the fact itself and because it gives power. Others just want to have power. But whatever the road to power you have taken, once you have got it, it is not unlikely that you are going to overplay your hand. We see it, for instance, in Russia, where Putin thought that, after having taken the Crimea, in the same easy way he could control Ukraine as a whole. But in his ivory tower, he hadn’t seen that Ukraine 2022 is different from Ukraine-2014. But let’s stop here, for in a Montaignian way I have already too much drifted off from my original theme, and that is that being famous can be an agony, if not for yourself, then for others, but being a little bit known usually has only positive sides. For power it’s the same. Too much power makes a hell for many, but a little bit is useful for making things run. Be open for others, and especially be moderate. Didn’t already Plato say that moderacy is one of the cardinal virtues?