There are two natural impulses successful artists feel toward their audiences: humility, which leads to gratitude and affection; or arrogance, as the creator feels superior to the little people who consume the products of his genius. This explains much about Hollywood politics.
The problem is that humility is difficult to sustain, especially as one becomes rich and famous, surrounded by people who constantly reinforce their arrogance. Humility feels irrational when you're told a hundred times a day that you're the center of the galaxy.
Most of us imagine that if we became hugely successful writers, actors, musicians, athletes, etc. we would be in love with our fans, eternally grateful for their patronage. We imagine ourselves as grateful and affectionate when recognized in public, treating fans like family.
There are famous people like that, humble souls with a real connection to their audience, who just love making people happy. Unfortunately, more of them trend toward arrogance, in part because fame can simply become tiresome and annoying, but also because humility frightens them.
There is something fearsome about the notion of creators becoming subordinate to their creations - that something you made could become greater than yourself, that you aren't superior to the many people who share in your creation. You want people to see and respect YOU.
The funny thing about the human condition is that everyone understands the idea of "earning respect," but most of us tend toward DEMANDING it. Earning respect is really hard. Your efforts may be in vain, and even if you gain respect, you have to work to keep it.
That may help explain why so many rich and famous people, so many creative types, get drawn into collectivist politics, statism, and authoritarianism. They're recruited by people who promise instant respect and validation for their persons by adopting the correct politics.
If you fear humility, if you're desperate to be seen as superior to what you have created - and vastly superior to those who consume it - you crave a moral and intellectual framework that validates arrogance. Collectivist politics offer that, quickly and easily.
Collectivism is insanely cruel - no one is so lost and abandoned as the victims of failed Big Government programs, the inconvenient collateral damage, those treated unfairly in the name of "fairness" - but it constantly masquerades as compassion and superior morality.
That is a masquerade that arrogant and insecure people will always be eager to attend. If you lack the humility to stand beneath your art and alongside your audience, you will scramble for the top of any hill that lets you rise above them, even a cruel mountain of bones. /end
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