Einstein Was A Celebrity

And so is Paris Hilton – what is wrong with this picture?

I am finishing up a biography on Albert Einstein and have learned a few things.  One is that Einstein was a pretty shi*ty father.  He also revolutionized the way the physical world was viewed in science.  Third, he was a bona fide celebrity.  For all the ways we as a society have progressed the celebrity culture is definitely one way where we are definitely regressing. 

Even 30 years ago the names Woodward and Bernstein became famous because of their exposure of the Watergate scandal.  Now I don’t even remember the name of the New York Times’ journalist who won a Pulitzer for exposing the Bush wiretapping program – and I played basketball with the guy a few months ago.  But whether I like it or not I can tell you who Omarosa is.  Newspapers are dying and reality television is thriving. 

But the case of Einstein was particularly interesting to me.  A man who deserved legitimate fame for a theory that turned scientific law on its head and won a Nobel Prize became a household name.   What would Einstein be today? My guess last night at an open mic was maybe he’d be the boring Tuesday guest on The Daily Show.  “Next we have the author of The General Theory of Relativity – Albert Einstein.” ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (I guess to Jon Stewart’s credit – even though I find him increasingly and unbearably smug – is that he does have authors of different disciplines on his show, including scientists).

Instead we make any as-hole with a foul mouth or enlarged breasts a celebrity.  I think part of this stems from our culture, that George Carlin certainly ripped apart, where little kids for the last 20 years have been told that they are special and unique and great.  Now those coddled and delusional idiots have grown up  and in the back of their minds it’s cool to see the average as-hole become a celebrity because, unlike Einstein, they could see themselves doing the same.   Studying physics?  No thanks.  Blowing a washed up celebrity on a tour bus – now that is something everyone can do?  Blogs, YouTube and its ilk represent  challenge to traditional authority and media run amok and the backlash is that our newspapers and our values are quickly transitioning from absolute to relative to obsolete.   Our celebrities no longer have talent or objective value, our news sources are increasingly delivered in glib, opinion-soaked soundbites.  And like the frog that boils to death as temperature is increased gradually we are just accepting this.

So as a glib, opinionated comic seeking fame for telling jokes let me leave you with this piece of wisdom.  Someone not too long ago told me that my reading of the morning newspaper (in print form) and my interest in the news and more specifically, politics, was merely a product of having been raised like that (somehow this was meant to be a challenge to the objective importance of being well informed).  Well, that is how I was raised and hopefully there are still people out there that will raise their kids that way or else in ten years you may be coming to this website for both your celebrity and news fix.