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The malling of America
Old Navy and Starbucks and Jamba Juice! Oh my! Plus: Feed looks at the latest trend in computer interfaces.
By Jenn Shreve
[08/13/99]

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[08/12/99]

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ICM superagent Jim Wiatt defects to William Morris. Hollywood watches as all-out agency war looms.
By Nikki Finke
[08/11/99]

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Nudity for all!
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By Jenn Shreve
[08/06/99]

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Old dog, new tricks
Tina Brown's first Talk hits the stands.
By Sean Elder
[08/03/99]

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In the recent spate of highly visible hate crimes -- from Texas and Illinois to California and Washington state -- the emerging pattern seems to be less about specific hates, racism or anti-Semitism than frenzied, bloody tantrums staged by a string of losers with a common goal -- to grab headlines. "The reason they are doing this is for their moment of glory," says Marvin Hier, who has studied the subject intensely for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, "when they feel the whole world is stopping to take notice of them."

This trend isn't limited to hate crimes. In the chilling story of Cary Stayner -- the Yosemite killer -- we saw how one man's penchant for brutality can be sharpened by an appetite for publicity. Soon after he confessed to murdering four women in Yosemite National Park, Stayner told San Jose reporter Ted Rowlands, "I want a movie of the week." Though he admitted having murderous fantasies since childhood, Stayner may also have been propelled by a jealous wish for notoriety equal to his brother Steven, whose escape from a pedophile in the late '70s was indeed dramatized for TV.

It's an all-too-familiar pattern. The Oklahoma City terrorists, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, cyber-vandal Kevin Mitnick and killer Mark David Chapman all showed a yearning for attention, both in the headline-grabbing nature of their crimes and in their polemics after capture. Whatever their diverse rationalizations for wreaking harm, it also surely had a lot to do with getting noticed in an era that reveres fame.

Society appears to be trapped, obliged to pay madmen the attention they crave, in direct proportion to the hurt they do.

This is not a new problem. Two millennia ago, in the Hellenistic era, a young man torched one of the seven wonders of the ancient world -- the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. When caught and asked why, he replied first with grievances against individuals and his city state, then admitted that he really wanted to make a mark, to be remembered. Since he wasn't a great warrior, or creative person, his best chance was to gain infamy by destroying something.

Conditions are ripe for more of this. Not only has fame itself been made sacred, but countless films and novels feed a culture of resentment by extolling the image of romantic loners, battling vile institutions. On the plus side, this all-pervading mythos fosters a mild but truly healthy suspicion of authority. But when exaggerated, it becomes one of the most tedious and toxic of all modern clichés -- preaching contempt for all institutions, along with disdain for the very same tolerance and cooperative effort that sustain civilization. Now add another ingredient -- the progressive diffusion of destructive technologies into private hands -- and you get a recipe for profound unpleasantness in the years ahead.

We just don't need this trend further reinforced by the seductive lure of renown.

Are there solutions?

One answer is suggested by that fellow who burned the temple at Ephesus. He is often called Erastratos. But in fact, many scholars think that is a made-up name, used to replace his true identity, which was expunged. To punish his selfish act and deter others, the city banned speaking of him. Two millennia later, no one knows for sure who he really was.

Next page | My proposal: An "Erastratos law"