Bright People: "I Don't Need Fame, I Just Want To Be a Scientist."

 Fame. Fame. A lust to be known. A wish to be recognised on the streets. A secret dream to have fan clubs of your own. "Oohhh, if they only knew how GREAT I am! If the whole world could see how COOL I am! I deserve to be famous too." - most of us think from time to time. 

 I do not remember when I came across fame issue first. I must have been a 10 years old girl signing into a hair comb = microphone a popular song of that time in front of a mirror wearing my mother's beautiful dress. My daily watching TV definitely played a role in my first education about fame. From that time till these days fame issue is bugging me. Why does "becoming famous" topic has been so meticulously natured in mass-media for tens of years? If not to say for thousands of years? In the end of the 20th century a person had to do something really outstanding to become famous, in the 21st century you can be famous for doing something silly or scandalous, or owning a grumpy cat, or having a millionaire dad or lover. Has the world gone crazy?

 Why fame is so attractive? People with different backgrounds have different reasons. A boy from the poor family wants to become famous because it brings good fortune. A daughter of millionaire needs fame in order to see herself on magazine pages and to seem to herself popular, even when 99% of the world despises her.

 Mass-media is fond of using American dream as a red carpet to fame. American dream started hypnotize people nearly from the discovery of America. The law of American dream, according to mass-media, works pretty simple - work hard and one day you will become rich and famous. If it's really so, why since 1492 each American hasn't become rich and famous? Didn't they work hard enough? I think they did. If there is so much hard working people in the US, why does Forbes full list of America's richest people include 400 persons on it and not 320,064,285 persons, which is an actual demographics of the US? May be the situation is like this because American dream simply doesn't work? Then why does mass-media washes our brains with this fairy tale on a daily basis? 

 Looking on the covers of magazines and newspapers first pages you see only actresses, models, sportsmen\women, businessmen, millionaires who inherited their fortunes. What if I don't want to be an actress? Or I'm not tall enough to be a model? Or I do not have a wish to be a greedy businessman? What if I'm a low class person and have nothing to inherit except and apartment which costs much less than a million of dollars? Then I do not deserve to be on the cover of a magazine? What If I want to be a scientist, like a boy in the picture, and want to discover through my experiments a cancer cure?  I think the world would be much better if on magazine covers were people who really improve the world - doctors, teachers, nurses, scientists, factory workers, aviation engineers, architects, bus drivers, canteen cooks, street cleaners, fishermen. These people definitely make our world better. Can you imagine them on magazines covers? I can. What if these people served for us as examples and role models? What for to put on pedestal and actress or a singer? Do they save lives on a daily basis like doctors do? Do they repair air crafts so hundreds of people could visit their relatives in other countries? Does a model or an actress teach kids reading?

 I met a boy that you can see on Vogue magazine cover in a cafe. He is a teenager. I saw a huge Organic Chemistry book in English, not in Russian, on his table and right away started a conversation with him and his friend, because I couldn't believe that teenagers can carry along such huge books in their rucksacks every day. I spoke with him about future plans and he said that he loved chemistry and wanted to be a scientist. Then I said:"Oh, you want to make a discovery and become famous." He said:"I don't need fame, I just want to be a scientist. I want to sit in a quiet nook and make experiments. But yes, I want to make a discovery and do something good for the humanity." After those words I was very surprised, not to say astonished. Here I am, finally found somebody who doesn't want to be famous! And who actually wants to do good for the world. 

 Perhaps, when more and more people realize what kind of things are really worth our attention, and those things do not include fame and becoming an actress, but include doing your best for people and becoming a doctor, a scientist or an engineer. And when people of such professions will be on magazines covers more often, most probably, there will be no wars, no poverty and much less suffering in the world.            

            

The guy is fond of organic chemistry.

Just look what a huge book it is!