MARK -- HOMO CELEBRITUS!

Our species has moved from "homo sapiens" to "homo computerus" and now "homo celebritus." Which is to say, a new life form stands before us, bathed in a thousand kleig lights and in a million adjectives of constant attention.

This, however, is not to re-state the obvious. Not to flaunt the already-flaunted. The real raison d'etre for today's celebrity cult runs far deeper than idle curiosity. Or than indulgent pleasure in dirty little secrets. 21st C "homo celebritus" stands before us as a living museum piece. A sentient illustration of our modern Western world, moving ever faster toward its destiny.

Here's the point...!

All this salacious attention to Angelina and Jen, Brad and Tom, J.Lo and LinLo, is actually instructing us as to what is happening to us. Lately, as go the stars, so go our own lives. Ever more self-centered...self-indulgent...self-serving ...self-righteous. Were an E.T. to visit our planet, it might correctly conclude that we as a species have little interest in our planet! Our populations! Our value systems! Even our collective fate!

Our biggest interest -- exactly like our celebrities biggest interest -- is simply and solely about self. Thus -- as their little Roman Candles of fame shoot, flair, and fade -- so also may be the Western fate of the rest of us. Obsessing so furiously about the trivial to the exclusion of the vital, we may be the first culture since Pompeii to ignore our Vesuvius while busily gossiping and golfing under the summer sun.

Lets see now. Hair just right...clothes properly fitted...college records and career resumes washed clean... camera-ready smiles on our faces....plus some well-rehearsed ad libs for the public. Perfect. Global warming, complex legislation and other un-simplified policy issues be damned. We're ready for our closeup. After all, what else is there to life than our closeups...!