Late Modern Vapor
The style industry exists to keep producing new styles, to keep everyone thinking that they have to buy a new wardrobe each year to keep up, to bring shame to everyone uncool enough to wear last season’s colors .
A celebrity, someone once said, is a person well known for being well known. But the half-life of fame is extremely short, and to keep yourself in the public eye you have to be willing to make yourself over again and again in order to keep ahead of the game.
Styles live, and styles die. Celebrities sit on top of the world for a week, but then are forgotten, and show up, pathetically attempting to regain a bit of lost notoriety by going a few rounds on Celebrity Boxing.
This too is vapor and shepherding wind.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
In Medias Res
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