Are you part of my tribe? The death of Heath Ledger and the tribal mind...

I sat down for a break this morning and watched the morning TV news. Perhaps that wasn't the best thing to do. The lead story was the death of Australian actor Heath Ledger. Ledger was found dead in his New York City apartment Tuesday afternoon (NY local time). An autopsy will be held Wednesday morning to discover the cause of death. Reports are blaming prescription sleeping pills, which were found at the scene, though obviously no one can say yet if this was a suicide or an accidental death. Ledger is reported to have had sleep disturbances caused by one of his latest roles (the Joker in the new Batman movie). Ledger is survived by his two year old daughter, Matilda.

People die every day. Young people (Ledger was only twenty eight years old). Talented people (Ledger was an academy award nominated actor and had won other awards across his career). Fathers. Sons. Across this country families will mourn deaths today that none of us will even hear of, let alone give any thought to.

What is it about the death of an actor that makes us pause? That makes us think of his daughter? That makes us feel as if we have lost someone ourselves?

I've watched Oprah occaisionally lately. One episode screened recently was from early 2007 and themed "America talks to Oprah". One of the topics was celebrity gossip and it brought up a very interesting theory of evolutionary psychology from journalist Carlin Flora.

This from the Oprah website:
Journalist Carlin Flora wrote an article about celebrity obsession in Psychology Today. According to Carlin, an evolutionary psychology theory says people are so interested in celebrities because our brains trick us into thinking we know them personally.

"We're built to view anyone we recognize as an acquaintance," she says. "We think they are in our tribe, so to speak, and so we are interested in gossip about them almost to the same extent we're interested in gossip about our friends and family, because it's important to know what's going on in the tribe."
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200704/20070406/slide_20070406_284_104.jhtml

There's something in this theory that resonates with me. Obviously, our "tribes" will be different... your tribe might consist of Anime artists, cyclists, scientists, thrash metal guitarists, renaissance painters... you get the idea.

Was Heath part of my tribe? Yes, I think he was... not in a big way, but I know of his work and followed some of it. The latest being Brokeback Mountain. I knew he met his partner Michelle on that movie and that they had a baby girl called Matilda. I knew they'd recently split up. I didn't know he plays the Joker. I also didn't know that he starred with Cate Blanchett in the Bob Dylan movie ("I'm not there"), but that's all being mentioned today.

I didn't *know* Heath Ledger, but it's true... I could recognise him as an acquaintance. The idea that he was one of "us" feels authentic. This tribal idea really interests me.

This post is really about that personal connection. On a more 'abstract' level, it's true we have lost one of our best. Heath Ledger was an award winning Australian actor who took on the most challenging roles when he could have made plenty of money playing the heart throb. He seemed to have integrity and passion - things that are worth celebrating.

My heart goes out to his small daughter. To lose your father is one thing, but it's another when the whole world claims him as their own.


Reports:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/23/2144369.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/23/wledger223.xml

Tributes, including from PM Kevin Rudd:
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23095733-661,00.html

IMDB entry:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005132/