We tell ourselves that material success will bring us joy and when it doesn’t we are left without room to run. Without anything to strive for successful people often feel that their achievements are empty.
Celebrities, actors, and others who live in the public eye feel it more acutely than others. Their careers feed on the fickle attentions of the plebiscite. If the public tastes have changed, they become washed up. Look at all the child actors who grow up into dysfunctional adults. Once they were no longer cute kids, the public had no use for them and acting, it seems, isn’t the best training for the “real world” of indifference and common neglect. Whereas once your needs were on everyone’s mind, now you’re just another anonymous no-face passer-by.
