> The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. <
We fought a revolutionary war to get rid of royalty. But I guess a fraction of the population must have their royalty.
So if not queens and dukes, then entertainers and athletes.
I think there’s deep psychological need in people to create a “royalty”. My examples are the semi-deification of entertainers\athletes and politician “personality cults”. This inner human tendency one needs to be alert to in oneself and to fight against it.