Back in ancient history (or at least our imagined history), gods were very personal. The stories of the Greek gods being driven by emotion and impulse were incredibly relatable to the humans who worshipped them. As time has gone on, our religions have turned more and more abstract - our gods have become more and more impersonal. We still need our contemporary religions to have a facet of humanity to connect with them - whether a saint, prophet, or sage.

With the rise in people breaking with their religious traditions over the last few centuries, many people have filled this void with other means of worship or obsession. There's a lot that could be covered here, but what I'm really interested in is the mindset wherein a person gets great joy from their object of deification living happily. For instance, while the British Royal Family is no longer seen as much as the chosen of god to lead the people, they are still propped up for tradition, and because, I think, some people really like having a King and Queen. It is very expensive to maintain the lives of the Royals, and in spite of overwhelming protests (shouldn't that money be going to the NHS?), many are still happy that they have monarchs. A royal wedding is the most visually obvious when thousands gather to celebrate the most beautiful, richest, and divine amongst us getting to be happy. It doesn't stop with events however. In daily life there is something gained from reading the news of what they have been up to - imagining their life in their perfect palaces beyond normal life, separated from our squalid, imperfect selves, and gaining personal joy from knowing they are out there, happy.

In our democratic countries without absolute rulers we nonetheless find no lack of sources for worship - especially in the contemporary lack of a monoculture. Celebrities in sport, acting, music, fashion, politics, and so on take on this mantle for unknown numbers of people. It is often publicly contemptible, (just as loving the royals in the UK is), for someone to care so much for someone they've never met, but even those who would chastise others for their 'ridiculous' love of a celebrity, they themselves often have people they deeply admire that they feel is 'different' than the fangirling or 'stan' culture they might deride.

Our contemporary celebrities are often not as separated from our world as they once were, making it harder to imagine them living perfect lives up on Mt. Olympus. However, fictional celebrities allow a very clean means of creating this divine perfection and separation. The joy we feel when everything works out for an imagined character in an imagined situation is still real. -And so we can make shrines and live our lives in some way influenced by these flawless creatures better than our impure selves. It continues to even more interesting places when the thing viewed as better than yourself is something you created, "I am a wretched, disgusting creature, but my life was to bring into the world this divinity, oh how blessed am I to be allowed even to gaze upon it for a moment."

I still feel shame and stop myself if I feel myself glorifying another person to some near divine status. Is it is not worth heaven on earth if there is also squalor? I nonetheless continue to feel great relief learning that someone I do not know is well, and I think it is a perfectly human behavior.

Sidenotes / Tangents: Ancient deities like us ||| Metaphors to make sense of the world