Beautiful prose and thanks for the ping. May I delicately add, 'a potential loss of the moral high ground'.
For though the fame motive plays a big role, at root, the morals debate is driving much of this too. The high elite know the party is coming to a close, and they don't like it one bit. They have been the mill owners of moral fibre for awhile now, but the mills are subject competition. Viva la internet!
Oh, I do agree with you there gobucks!
At bottom, "all morality is," is a specification of what is the best way to reconcile the apparent "conflicts" that obtain between God and man, society, and the world -- "world" here being understood, not only as planet Terra or the solar system, but of the entire physical universe altogether. This would be the "material picture." But the animating principle of the universe, it seems to me, comes from God and man, and tends to get externalized in societies. This principle is immaterial in nature. So are Life and consciousness — and all the works derived by humans from same, in the sciences, in literature, in the arts; not to mention the great religions, my own confession being Christian.
Now folks will say, I'm sure, that to make such a sweeping statement is to endue humanity with a significance which it does not deserve. All I can say in reply to that is: The Holy Scriptures advise us otherwise.
And this "fame thing" is a pernicious influence on society, if you were to ask me. I won't say it is necessarily "immoral" in principle; but I would suggest that it is thorough-goingly amoral. And not only that, but a complete waste of time to the extent that it refuses to engage the really serious things of life and the world, from the standpoint both of "the performer," and (worse) the audience.
Thus, to me, it represents a lack of seriousness wherever it may be found, exemplified and amplified by our wonderful "Mainstream Media." And may I also take a moment to thank Academe while I'm at it?
Not!!!
Oh, well. For what it's worth, gobucks. Thanks so much for writing!