Discussing The Concept of Idol

 

"Idol" is a word which has been used more and more popularly in our modern society, especially in the entertainment industry, to indicate a perfect public figure who a lot of people adore and worship, such as an actor, an actress or a singer... Most of us must be familiar with the currently famous programs like American Idol, Vietnamese Idol. It sounds like there are a variety of "Idols" existing in our world in people's eyes these days. But is there really such a so-called Idol in this real world ? I don't think so.



Every human-being is inherently a collection of the good things and the bad things. Nobody is completely good as well as nobody is totally bad. "Good" and "bad" always exist parallelly in everyone of us like day and night, sun and moon - contradicting but supporting each other. Saying they contradict because obviously they are completely different in an extreme way: night would not come if day has not gone yet, sun belongs to day and moon belongs to night. Saying they support each other because we would not know how bright day looks if we are not aware of the darkness of night. And hence, every human-being has a decision to make in his life for his own lifestyle: living "upwards" or living "downwards". If a person tries to promote the good things in himself and suppress the bad things, he is living "upwards" and vice versa. The lifetime of a human being may be too short for him to suppress all the bad things in himself to become purely good. As a result, there would never be such a person who is considered "perfect". Suppose there was such a purely good person, he would surely leave this mediocre world to come and live together with the Buddha or other saints in heaven.

Having said so, I think it is a little bit silly to put someone, no matter who they are, to the position of an "Idol" to adore and worship like a saint. It is even more silly when after that, we grant ourselves the exclusive right to confine that "Idol" to our subjective and sometimes narrow-minded opinions and liking. And then, as an inevitable aftermath, when that "Idol" does some thing or acts in some way that we don't feel agreeable or satisfied, we use our self-granted right again to condemn or even curse him. I don't think there are any public figures who really want to become such an idol. As a public figure, they just have no choice.

Like I said, there is no such a so-called idol in this world. But out there, there are a lot of noble deeds and people worth our respect and admiration such as people with golden hearts who dedicate all their life to serving unfortunate fates left forgotten on the edge of society. This world would not be fine any less if there is no "idol" for us to worship and adore. But it surely would be much better, if everyone of us knows how to treasure any good deed we encounter in our life, no matter how small it is.

March 07 2010

Jeffrey Thai