It is art with an unalloyed message: America has a soft spot for shiny new toys (especially ones that are hidden), and we’re not ashamed of it. After all, we are the ones who created these celebrities in the first place.
Maybe American culture, like the celebrities that are its most prominent parts, is about perpetual reinvention. Ours is a culture that is constantly evolving (or devolving)—where one meme eventually spawns (or gives way to) another, and we keep our eyes fixed to the ever-increasing media to see what’s next.
And perhaps we can’t be bothered to cultivate just one cultural identity—maybe our manifest destiny is to we create millions. In 2010, the Library of Congress dictated that it would acquire the entire Twitter archive. So every tweet of every tweeter (including Beiber, who incidentally is a Canadian) will be a part of the national record. We’re all adding to the American ethos, one 140-character utterance at a time.
Andy Warhol, one of America’s most famous artists, once said that everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. But there is a follow up quote that gets less attention—in 1979, he told the Washington Post:
“I’m bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is ‘In 15 minutes everybody will be famous.’ ”
Sometimes in America, 15 minutes can feel like forever.
