No one is important, no one is immortal. (In the long run)

A few days ago, I was talking to an 18-year-old guy and the name of Raj Kapoor suddenly sprung up.
His response: Raj Kapoor? Who?
Except for the MBA folks who go through case studies of the revolutionary T Model, and entrepreneurs and Corporate businessmen, no one knows who the legendary Henry Ford was. And this is when he was once a household name like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are today.
Ask the Indian Millenials whether they have heard of Sadhana or their western counterparts, Audrey Hepburn (Sadhana was so inspired by her unique hairstyle that when she incorporated it, it became known as ‘Sadhana cut’).

Do you get it?
Do you get it now from these examples?
Immortality is temporary.
Go forward three or four generations and nobody cares.
It is as if these famous people and celebrities of the past were never even here.
People find new demi-gods to worship. People find new celebrities to put on a pedestal.

So, does that mean it is pointless?
The pursuit of fame?
Our lofty endeavours?
No!
What matters is the present.
But it all comes with a caveat.
One shouldn’t let success go into one’s head.
One shouldn’t develop a God-complex.

All famous people and celebrities realise the short-lived nature of their stardom.
Still, they believe that perhaps they might be an exception.
Perhaps their name would be permanently etched in the history books.
In the past, many stars knew the harsh truth.
But I feel the age of the internet perhaps has given false hope to the stars of today.
Hell, we don’t even know whether humans will survive as a species for long.
And we don’t even know whether an alien on a distant planet cares about Karl Marx.
Then why are most of the celebrities so full of themselves?
Is it the power they have over others?
Is it the Influence?

We don’t know the Dostoevskys of yesterdays and we won’t remember the Dostoyevsky of Russia.
Do people really think that all these online databases would last for eternity?
Or people would look up an article on Tom Cruise on Wikipedia 300 years from now on (even if humans and their technological advanced civilization, and of course Wikipedia manage to survive by then)?
No!
Nobody would even care to look at the past data (even it survives in some form).

Of course, some people would argue: But we know Shakespeare, right? We know Socrates! We know Julius Caesar. We know Alexander. We know the infamous and vile Hitler.
Yes, we know.
But for how long? Would we know about them 1000 years from now on? And what about their counterparts. Were there no great philosophers contemporary to Socrates? Were there no exceptional playwrights before Shakespeare (Or even during his times)?

Hell, people are already starting to forget the “Orange Man”. And it is not even a year since Biden took over.
In the long run, nobody even cares.
Nobody even cares what you did.
What you achieved.
What you left as a legacy.
Or how you lived your life.

Therefore, a few words for all the celebrities (those who are so full of themselves) and even normal people who suffer from delusions of grandeur or excessive self-inflated egos –

No one is important in the real sense.
Everyone is expendable.
We are here only for the time being.
And so is our superiority, success and fame.
In the long run, nobody will remember you (even if you are an Elon Musk) or me.
It would be as if you and I were never even here.

We are specks of dust on a tiny blue sphere, on one of the trillions of solar systems, on one of the trillions of Galaxies.
No one is truly immortal.
No name is etched permanently in the history books.
The Universe doesn’t care.
It goes on and on.
With or without us.
So, dear celebrities (Here I am referring specifically to the jerks), be humble!

One day, no one would remember Shakespeare, even!

Then who are you?

Please Note : No one will remember this article too. 😉