Celebrity

I got a book several years ago about the life of Nikola Tesla, the great Serbian-American inventor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I only just started reading it recently, and have found it to be quite excellent. Tesla was an extremely interesting fellow, revolutionizing the world with every thought.

Nikola Tesla invented AC electricity, which slowly replaced Thomas Edison's DC electricity systems world-wide. He was the first to convert water energy into power with hydroelectricity on a large scale, pulling power from Niagara Falls. He was also the first to figure out how to harness and deliver this immense amount of power, powering the cities of Buffalo, Albany, and New York City. He invented many components for and perfected the use and production of "wireless transmissions" - or the radio.

As I'm reading through, I'm struck by his celebrity. He was a regular subject of newspaper articles. Banquets were thrown for him when he completed a project. Tesla was a household name worldwide by the late 1800s, and he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Mark Twain, JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, Lord Kelvin, the Vanderbilts, and George Westinghouse - the man to whom he sold many of his inventions. In Tesla's day, our nation celebrated ideas, literature, knowledge, and accomplishment in business.

And then I thought about celebrities today: Sarah Palin, Justin Bieber, Madonna, Kobe Bryant, Tom Hanks, Kim Kardashian, and Lindsay Lohan. Today, we celebrate voice, athletic ability, controversy, physical appearance, and the ability to pretend. We have parades for sports teams who won a few games in a row. We have TV show that follows around parents with eight children. We pay upwards of $10-15 to watch a movie for a couple hours.

How many famous inventors can you name from the last 20 years other than Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, or Steve Jobs? How many authors are mentioned in the media on a weekly - or even monthly - basis? How many physicists can you name? Even NASA is shrinking! What happened in the last hundred years to shift our focus and praise?

I'm not entirely sure, but I am certain that I don't like it.