Society Only By Name- Part One: The Darlings

1) No-one is as renowned as much as they are hated as a darling. They sweep through all and change, they amend status quos with status quos, they pile on new expectations for all to lead by example. Likewise, they inspire an almost political jealousy, petty one-up-manship and proceedings doused in narcissism and with recycled phrases such as, "a means to an end".

2) Darlings often make blistering- yet also impressively subtle- attacks on those who disagree with them or their ideas. They can also give verbal beheadings to a smidgen of scepticism, let alone an entire critique of their motives.

3) The darling cannot win, even when conditions have been mechanised in their favour so that they can never lose. Perhaps it is this that catalyses their paranoia. After all, on the one hand they are surrounded by yes men, and often only yes men. The tension begins when even a balanced, constructive comment on them or their abilities are interpreted as an attempt to assassinate their character (though a darling with character is oh so rare!).

4) Of course, even darlings get undeserved attacks, especially from an unwanted or unneeded scathing comment on their appearance or personality. Yet, it is all amplified by the reaction of the darling, often channelling their inner Hamlets. They are never alone, despite their towering social oppositions- oh no, they are never alone; for the darling has a secret weapon: a culture of mobocracy dedicated to witch hunting those the darling suspects of barking up the wrong tree. These legions of white knights and bloody minded crusaders stand up for their idol like ants protecting their queen. There, controversy begins and controversy prevails. Controversy that only serves as entertainment!

5) Many liberties are taken with the darling, to such a wide degree that it no longer becomes an exception to the rule but the rule itself. The rule, you may ask? The rule is the darlings can do this, but nobody else can. The darling is allowed to spit venom into the eyes of the many for the betterment of the few. However, let us not be mistaken by the darling's venom. The darling is not a cobra; its hood is made of paper mache. It is an ailment, not a life-ending concoction.

6) The anti-venom for the darling is a life-ending concoction, though. It is the venom, the sting of someone who does what they do by craft and not merely by celebrity, or is celebrated but is not influenced by the vanity that comes with celebrity. It is the antithesis of the darling. Hence, when the darling breaks another, it is a matter of projection. They project their weakness, their bullying and often vindictive nature.

7) The darling is not merely the one you think they are. They can be well-read, perhaps, but they are not a wordsmith. They can be practitioners of their chosen hobbies, but they never excel. They can be silver-tongued, but never witty enough to inspire genuine laughter. On the topic of being well-read, the darling is superficially modest. This modesty makes them appear to be greatly read. They have sailed two of the seven seas, but despite never sailing the other five, they assert the image that the other five are under their belt. We believe them, but why? We believe them because we simply trust them.

8) The nicer the darling, the "kinder" and "gentler" they are perceived by a general audience, the more cruel they really are, the more true and surprising their colours appear to an unbiased eye. Their private selves, which they milk for public display- how touching- are bogged down in confessions about the meanings of their worlds and their words. They espouse their rhetoric on varying platforms, either on social media or in presenting it to others in conversation, but if we actually sit down and observe what they are actually saying, their personal stories, their "honest and amazing lives" and explorations of their pasts, the darling is either incredibly boring or they have severe entitlement issues. The distinction remains unknown to them.

9) Perhaps I am presenting all darlings of our pseudo-society as malicious, one-sided cretins. That is fairly inaccurate. The mature darling, the world-weary and often authoritative but un-bossy darling, no longer reacts with arrogant self-deprecation, but with an acknowledgment or a negative comment. Problem is, this breed of darling is rare. This is a darling which has gone through the immaturity and entitlement of the early, new darling unscathed. This breed of darling, however, must also survive a potential worsening of age or a process of burning out, which most darlings never survive.

10) The darling's popularity only endures by chance, if the pre-determined trends are compatible with their ambitions. Their statuses may live on for a while after not fitting in with a trend, but they have to retire. They are exiled by internal forces from the spotlight of "fame".

11) Of course, the darling can do their occupations well. That is, perhaps, their greatest revenge- they often deserve their accolade, at least initially. Even at that stage, hyperbole is their enemy, employed by their friends and aspiring successors, the masses of people who skim-read descriptions of them and their character and their achievements. They interpret what they want and insert their own meanings, making their accolades a reflection of their good taste.

12) More often than not, the darlings are not social prophets. Their opinions are nothing new or spellbinding. They merely echo their influences, often obscure or forgotten. By intention or not, the darling presents themselves as successors of them, or pass these influences off as their own.

13) A small proportion of darlings do not actually want to be darlings. These darlings are rebellious, in the sense that they actually aim to achieve and not to brag about achieving very little. They also have a personality which considers egotism not as something foreign, but uncommon. They often wish to diminish their own authority, not for others, but because it isn't right for them. An honest darling! How rare! They get rarer by the day, unfortunately.

14) The majority of us have icons, which we uphold with respect. However, one darling every so often idolises themselves to the point of martyrdom- even when this is stupid! Oh, what fools! They bleed themselves dry to enhance their pretentious ideas with their restless melodrama. These darlings want to save all of us- from what? Our own desires? Oh, they are textbook moralists. In their bubbles, they are gold medalists of the oppression Olympics of our time. They make laws which they break so they can punish themselves, punishment for us all, but which only advances their agendas and make themselves the centre of attention which they crave inside, but are oh too modest to reveal. Even in confidentiality, the truth is never out.

15) Darlings are necessary to the pseudo-society, and may even have relevance in the society of neutrality, but are not enough on their own to sustain it. Appraisal only goes so far and eventually new ones come along with new ideas and new methods of poisoning everything. This can only be aided by the opposition.

16) Even in the simplest of minds, darlings are complex. Yet, only they can close off all grey areas to replace with binary oppositions. They are here to convince the weak-minded and vulnerable that they are the pinnacles of society, and the others are mere dogs. They are the Objectivists of self-appointed cultism. This over-simplification of everything also seeps it way into the practices of the darlings' hobbies, who try to appease those it considers inferior, as well as masking the fact that they are not participants but figureheads used for popular support.