Sycophants

Why are people sycophantic?

There is one school of thought that people try to fill the emptiness of their own lives with what they perceive to be useful things from outside themselves. They build up a kind of worship relationship with the supplier of these things and sycophancy is born.

Some people's view of religion is similar. The God that they believe in (or have created for themselves) becomes this supplier from outside and the worship/sycophancy relationship kicks off.

In the modern world, there are more and more people who have rejected religion but without giving up the very human tendency towards the sycophantic. They therefore create a need to find an alternative object of their sycophancy.
The most common object for this is some form of "celebrity". It can be a radio DJ, a television presenter, a sports star, even an entire football team or a soap program.

What can happen next is as varied as the individuals concerned.
Common themes are:
- planning lives around these people's "appearances"
- feeling part of their lives and feeling that they are a part of ours
- going to extraordinary lengths to see them, follow them
- a reduction in attention to the other parts of our lives in order to accommodate the celebrities

So what's the way out if we are caught up in the sycophancy?
In observing people that are distinctly NOT sycophantic I have observed the following traits:
- they are incredibly busy living their own lives
- a large proportion of their "busyness" is focussed on others
- they are very private people
- they are very aware of their priorities and constantly assess and readjust them
- they are often very outspoken about celebrity
- they are unaware of who many celebrities are

Consider the following sliding scale as an example:
1. You have never heard of "Comic Relief does Fame Academy"
2. You have heard of it but never seen it
3. You have heard of it, seen a little of it, but don't really have any idea who any of the "z-list celebrities that can't sing" are
4. You have heard of it, sometimes have it on in the background while doing other things, and you know who 3 or 4 of the celebrities are
5. You have heard of it, always watch it, you didn't know who a few of them were at the start but you do now
6. You plan your life around the BBC1 episodes. It is "can't miss" TV. You have a favourite, opinions on who will win, who should win, and you vote occasionally.
7. As above but you vote regularly.
8. As above but you not only watch the BBC1 episodes, but also the BBC3 behind the scenes, you vote so regularly that you have RSI in your texting thumb from the frequency of voting, you talk about it at work every day with your friends.
9. As above, but you've also started watching other programmes that the "celebrities" are in as well - Eastenders, Casualty, Blue Peter. You've started to lose sleep worrying that your favourite might have a sore throat or was a bit nervous on their last performance. You wonder if there is anything you could do to help. You try and find an e-mail address that you can send an offer of help to them.
10. You write about it in your blog.

I'm a 10 - what about you?