Organorama 5/6 [antikvár]

Learn to live with Stars. Perhaps one of the most remarkable side effects of modern mass communication is the amazingly rapid rise - and often, alas, the equally rapid fali - of "stars". By this we don't mean only the countless hordes of teenage artistes, those musical mayflies which darken our cultural heaven. We're thinking mainly of star formation in those fields which earlier produced, at the most, coryphaei. A few decades ago it was quite unthinkable that a doctor, for example, should win universal acclaim because of his scientific or humanitarian work. Only the very rare exception was capable of acquiring eternal fame; somé succeeded in getting their names in large print in the newspaper, but the physician was really in no position to build himself up into a celebrated figure who appealed to the hungry imagination of "the man" who, strangely enough, always seemed to be "in the Street". In the recent past we have been able to observe that our profession is no longer excluded from entry into the seductive but extremely dangerous morass of the personality cult. Consequently eminent colleagues have been racking their brains over the complicated question of to what extent a doctor may place himself in the limelight without overstepping the bounds of medical ethics. We are inclined not to take all this too seriously as we realize that most of this sort of promotion takes place without the "star-doctor's" knowledge. He can hardly prevent interviews, which in themselves are perfectly reasonable, from stimulating the imagination of millions of television addicts. Perhaps we must remind ourselves of the fact that "epic deeds" of this order are still regarded as "hot news" among the countless exaggerated write-ups on the priváté lives of our over-hippy contemporary "culture builders". At any rate it proves that our world has not sunk completely into an abyss of wooliness. The star doctor will always have difficulty in avoiding being cheered. It will likewise be no easy matter for him to keep his distance from every form of honour. Like anyone else he will cultivate a trace of pride, but even the slightest humán weakness on his part will be enough to knock the collegial crown from his head. We shall have to learn to live with the stars and to be lenient in our judgement. Falsé lustre will fade by very virtue of its own nature in the light of our well-tested professional standards, as edited by . . . Hippocrates.