Jesus might not have reached the crucifixion site if 12 million people were anxiously waiting to greet him in the Golgotha, each eagerly standing to give him the Kiss of Judas and holding 30 Shekels of Silver in their hands. Imagine a moment from history: as Jesus ascends towards Mount Moriah, his disciples throw those Shekels in the air sacramentally, like a Bolo. But that never happened. History taught us that he only had 12 disciples at the Last Supper, and one refused to recognize him thrice the next day. Jesus was content with his 12 followers and never ran after the fame, and his social capital was those 12 trusted individuals on whom he relied to spread the knowledge. Jesus was confident that his knowledge and social capital were his natural strength, not fame. And those 12 disciples were the social capital of Jesus, who spread his message to the world and brought 3 billion followers today.
The analogy holds true in the context of the current time as well. Social capital is the Elixir-of-Life, which comes with the effective use of knowledge and makes fame inevitable. You could have millions of followers on your social media and thousands of impressions on your post. Still, ironically, none of them translates into social capital. Social capital is a network of multilateral social relationships where you exchange invaluable resources, mostly non-materialist, and build a non-transactional relationship that leads to the development of yourself and society. In essence, such social capital is built upon knowledge, not through power, neither authority, nor through your wealth. Yet, it is often confused with fame.
Building social capital is not quenching your thirst for fame. Fame comes at the mercy of the followers. If you want to be famous, you depend on the people who follow you. If you admire the lives of celebrities, politicians, and social influencers, then don’t be oblivious that their actual lives are much different from what we see on the stage or screen. Ironically, it is challenging to explain this to young and immature minds who consume such glitter of fame every day, get admired, and be like one of them without realizing that the lives living inside the fame are not real. Celebrities crave for a full box office, politicians beg for a full voter box, and social influencers urge for a full inbox. Still, none reciprocate their giver individually with a note of gratitude because they can’t, as they are always on the receiving side and don’t know their givers individually.
Fame could also be defined as the accumulation of positive sentiments given to a person by people who don’t know the person individually. Becoming famous is a long haul, but the transition to infamous could happen rapidly. A corruption scandal could make a politician infamous overnight, a selection of the wrong script could make a celebrity from a protagonist to an antagonist, and an inappropriate post by a social influencer could lead to the termination of the accounts. This could happen in a flick of time because fame is not in control of its holder; it is controlled by the beholders.
Knowledge, in contrast, is the philosopher’s stone to build social capital. And this is the most profound and long-lasting path to reach fame. An imperishable one. It is a known fact that the knowledge itself, as a standalone, is not decisive; it is the effective use of knowledge through your social capital which brings the power to make decisions in your favor. Social capital built on knowledge gives absolute control to the person because such a person will always be on the giving side. And such a person who possesses the knowledge and makes good use of it through social capital is the one who is destined to get fame.
You can’t admire someone else’s life, which is not their real life, but if you want to respect someone and follow them, then be a follower of their skills, not their lifestyle. It is still better to admire the cult of doctors, lawyers, and professors who transform their time into a commodity for the betterment of the people and society.
Fame is not in your control, but the knowledge is. Knowledge is eternal; fame is transient. However, immature minds carve for the latter and ignore the earlier.
“Wealth is like seawater; the more we drink, the thruster we become; the same is true for fame.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer.
Asif DURRANI
04 May 2023
https://www.linkedin.com/in/asifdurrani
Also published at Medium
Asif Durrani 