Celebrity worship

00:14-3.33 min.

Correct the factual mistakes in the following summary:

Angie has been making YouTube videos in which she talked about politics, pop, culture, religion, metaphysics, basically whatever tickles her fancy at a certain moment. This time she’s going to talk about celebrity worship and how society can benefit from it. Unfortunately, this topic hasn’t been given enough consideration. In the past celebrities existed in the same form as we see them today. However, the stories of gods and heroes from antiquity have nothing in common with today’s celebrities. The famous psychologist Carl Jung spoke about the collective unconscious, ideas and archetypes from which a kind of shared mental plane emerges. Humans have a habit of transforming physical things into spiritual images, such as gods and heroes. The gods and goddesses of antiquity represented non-existent characteristics that seemed perfect to people. Then Angie gives two examples from ancient mythology. Odin, the all-father from the Norse pantheon, was a kind of elf, a being with magical powers and supernatural beauty. The goddess Vesta from ancient Greece was the goddess of war, whose main characteristics were courage and aggression. Nowadays ancient archetypes of the patriarch and the mother don’t dominate the collective unconscious of modern people. Pagan cosmology dictates that humans sacrifice to the gods and worship at their temples, but it doesn’t allow them to inhabit the archetype of the god. Even though gods exist regardless of humans’ worship and their attendance, humans depend on gods. For instance, a woman living in ancient Rome could sacrifice to Odin if she had problems with her family. Thus gods are a collection of traits and characteristics that nobody has ever possessed.

03:36-6.15 min.

Put the statements in the correct order:

1. Modern people also keep images of celebrities in their homes and form cults and movements around them.

2. The Greek gods’ behavior was known to be far from perfect.

3. Modern celebrities, as well as ancient gods, tend to behave badly.

4. The stories of gods played a role of cautionary tales against the social evils.

5. People worship modern celebrities and put up with their bad behavior they are embodiments of certain archetypes.

6. Ancient gods and goddesses were worshipped by all strata of society.

7. Ancient gods were the proto celebrities of the past.

8. When celebrities’ human shortcomings and failings bubble up to the surface, people feel personally affected and disappointed.

9. People regard celebrities as their friends even though they have never met them before.

10. Angie is going to draw the parallels between modern celebrities and the gods and goddesses of antiquity.

11. People kept gods and goddesses in their homes in the form of idols, and various cults and movements were formed.

12. As the ancient gods lived on Mount Olympus, they didn’t have to behave in accordance with the established moral standards.

06:16-9.31 min.

Match the parts of the sentences:

1. They live in Hollywood, the modern Mount Olympus, their ways are not our ways,

2. They show us what it's like to be

3. Our culture will continue to overlook their indiscretions as long as

4. When we see celebrities in real life, we have very real

5. Although this is absurd, it just shows you the power of the psyche

6. The series follows a teenage fan girl named Laura as

7. Each of these celebrities, some are loosely based on real celebrities,

8. They were once regular people until they were offered the opportunity for fame and fortune

9. The catch is the human host will expire after a few years

10. Although the plot may seem fantastical and absurd at times,

11. The gods of the Pantheon are still simultaneously the people they were before;

12. Their identities become blurred and distorted

13. The series also explores the almost religious fervor that

14. The series also explores the things that fans are willing to overlook,

15. If you haven't already, I recommend that you

i. and how these things affect our very biology.

ii. fans feel and the ownership that they feel over the creator's work and personality.

iii. if they agree to become the vessel of a god.

iv. as their public and private personas war for dominance.

v. powerful and beautiful and strong and worthy of admiration.

vi. check out “the Wicked and the Divine” because it's a great read.

vii. biological reactions: the racing pulse, the shallow breathing, and even the euphoria.

viii. it rings true as a critique of modern celebrity culture fandoms.

ix. and why should they be bound by conventional morality and human decency?

x. and the heavy burden that this puts on the humanity of the creators in question.

xi. she becomes involved with a group of mega famous pop stars called “the Pantheon”.

xii. so that the cycle can begin again.

xiii. they continue to perform the vital social role of giving us something to aspire to.

xiv. they became famous and avatars of the divine essence of a specific deity.

xv. is inhabited by an ancient deity.

09:32-11.59 min.

Make questions to the following answers:

1. Because celebrities are often linked to brands, and brands are often linked to identities.

2. Because they force us to correlate abstract concepts with physical consumer items.

3. In order to get some of the vital archetypal essence.

4. With the retailer Topshop.

5. With perfection, beauty and talent.

6. As a modern goddess.

7. By buying into the brand.

8. “This is how to be if you want to attract or accomplish acts”.

9. A toxic psychic environment.

10. It is amorphous and vague and has no intrinsic meaning.

11. To a person that is widely known and has high social capital.

12. It has become more horribly blurred than ever before.

13. To the point that most people believe that these two functions are interchangeable.

14. From celebrity consumer culture.

15. Into household fodder.

12.00-15.00 min.

Do the following crossword and complete the gaps in the text with the words from it:

Celebrity worship

Complete the crossword puzzle below:

Created using the Crossword Maker on TheTeachersCorner.net

Down

1. making you feel nervous or worried

2. deep respect and often praise shown for a person or god

5. the quality of being able to go beyond normal limits or boundaries

9. having no connection with religion

Across

3. not well known and usually not very important

4. believing that God is in everything in nature and the universe

6. outmoded or discredited by reason of age: old and no longer useful, popular, or accepted

7. relating to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; worldly; earthly

8. a god or goddess

10. a particular way of considering something

⮿

The forces of capitalism are constantly blurring the lines and filling holes that society has failed to address. This is why people are calling for Oprah to be the next president of the United States after Trump. This is something that I personally find very … and disturbing. Our modern religious cosmology dictates that the all-powerful God the … power is embodied by the forces of capital, and celebrities are the lesser … that hold power over significant domains and act as the many human faces of this concept. We pay … to them with our attention with our time and with our money and, in turn, we feel as if we are part of something greater and close to something great. The deconstruction of oppressive religious ideas during the Scientific Revolution freed us from … and harmful ideas of organized religion and blind superstition. However, in our modern … age it is evident that a vacuum has been left in the collective unconscious and unless we fill that gap, the capitalists will happily do it for us. The forces of chaos will prey on our natural religious impulse for … of the … and in turn give us a false short-lived form of … that attacks our very sense of self, binding us into an endless loop of consumption. I say: “Look within for inspiration. The archetypes that I've mentioned already exist within us and we see them at play in nature and in the people around us all the time. I believe that we need to try our best to evolve beyond this form of worship in order for our culture to be a healthy one. In the capitalist economy in order for a few to be rich the many must be poor. The same principle operates in the social economy: in order for certain individuals to be elevated, the many must feel small, … and insignificant. Celebrity or not, I think it's important for us to start trying to seek inspiration from healthier sources. There are many sources outside of celebrity culture that provide us with the kind of inspiration that we're looking for and that provide us with the type of … that we're looking for but they're harder to find and you have to really pay attention in order to catch them. So that's been my commentary on celebrity culture, and I really hope that you enjoyed it. Next week I'm going to be doing a video about Bob Ross and how his ideas about art really changed my .... So tune in next week for my next video. Thanks, guys! Please like and subscribe as well.