the print media. Soon after the end of World War II, Americans became the best- entertained people on the face of the earth, and surely we still fit this description. These media are the source of most celebrity, although the Internet has made its own contribution, especially in allowing vast numbers of Americans to seize a tiny corner of celebrity for themselves, even though this kind of renown is usually fleet- ing. The lure of ‘‘being somebody’’ in the sense of being even a small-caliber ce- lebrity is strong. Americans see celebrity nearly everywhere. It is hard to get people to contribute to a charity unless that charity is fronted by a big-name celebrity. Those Americans who still read for pleasure, and this group keeps getting smaller, reflexively buy even the potboilers dashed off by well-promoted celebrity writers. People place their hope for eternal salvation in celebrity television evangelists, and to lure young church-goers, many churches have resorted to the use of drum sets and electric guitars. Some universities put their academic programs on starvation diets while spending princely sums on bringing in celebrity lecturers. The biggest celebrity on most campuses, of course, is the football coach, whose compensation is usually many times that of the university president. The celebrity culture, the youth culture, the entertainment culture, and U.S. popular culture in general have largely blended together in present-day America. The effects of this blending have left more questions than provided answers, despite the earnest efforts of many peo- ple to explain it all. Some critics chide Americans for having become absolutely sappy over celeb- rity others point out that our enormous interest in the comings and goings of celeb- rities is simply the modern version of the way earlier people gossiped about pretty much the same things: sexual entanglements, murders, accidents, natural disasters, noble or unusual births, oddities, and the like. It is true, if somewhat disconcerting, that most of the same things that fill today’s tabloids also filled the broadsides pub- lished and sold before even newspapers appeared. And it is probably true that our preoccupation with celebrity and our entertainment-steeped popular culture render us to some extent less rational, more prone to seeing the world through the filter of Hollywood movies, and to see politics and even war through the template of ball games. At the same time, this veneer of entertaining unreality is in part what makes people from all over the world want to come to America. An unfortunate effect of our celebrity, entertainment, youth, and popular culture is that, as a people, we demonstrate interests that appear to have become more nar- row. Boys are expected to be mainly interested in sports, girls in their own sports or shopping. To meet their obligations as fans, both genders are expected to be keenly interested in popular music, movies, some television—especially reality shows, which often seem mainly designed to show nice-looking young people wear- ing skimpy outfits—and the interactive joys of the Internet. Virtually all media con- tent, including what now passes for news, has been forced into the mold of entertainment. A popular bumper sticker reads, ‘‘If it’s not fun, why do it?’’ As cheery a thought as this might be, one is glad that, when one’s appendix needs to come out, that sticker is not on the bumper of our local surgeon. And when students hit the job market, it is remarkable how little appears in the job ads under the head- ing ‘‘Fun.’’ A second regrettable aspect of our present pop culture is the extent to Introduction | xvii
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