I think our lionization of "smart" people isn't so healthy. We should be making virtuous people famous, and that virtue ought not to be something as randomly granted as beauty, raw intelligence, or unalloyed strength.
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Why did you reply to me with that stupid meme and not the original post?
Virtue can come in many forms. Exhibiting charity, grace, self-sacrifice, wisdom, honor, valor, discipline, hard work, adaptability, humility or other virtues may come alongside inherent attributes like intelligence, physical beauty, or raw strength but that doesn't mean the two necessarily coincide. Indeed, natural gifts can be used for positive or negative ends.
A wise culture should elevate those who exhibit virtue, because those who are famous are the people a civilization agrees we should be paying attention to. To elevate any old person who just wants to be famous means it tells people that seeking fame is the highest virtue to aspire to, and that's just not going to be a healthy civilization (as our civilization today is quite unhealthy)
Early Rome told the story of Cincinnatus, who became dictator during an emergency, and once the emergency was over returned to his farm to live out the rest of his days illustrating great civic virtue. Late Rome focused on gladiators, whose virtue was mostly in entertaining the masses.
Our culture today is on the tail end of universally focusing on celebrities, people whose main virtue is being entertaining, or politicians whose main virtue is being popular or powerful. Those people often pretend to be virtuous, but their veneer is thin, plastic, and fake and everyone can see that. On the other hand, I'm seeing a some people losing interest in such people and instead are looking to be inspired by virtue.
Early Rome told the story of Cincinnatus, who became dictator during an emergency, and once the emergency was over returned to his farm to live out the rest of his days illustrating great civic virtue. Late Rome focused on gladiators, whose virtue was mostly in entertaining the masses.
Our culture today is on the tail end of universally focusing on celebrities, people whose main virtue is being entertaining, or politicians whose main virtue is being popular or powerful. Those people often pretend to be virtuous, but their veneer is thin, plastic, and fake and everyone can see that. On the other hand, I'm seeing a some people losing interest in such people and instead are looking to be inspired by virtue.