Don’t fly too close to the sun.

Milo Yiannopoulos was playing the fame game. And in that world, what you say is unimportant as long as they spell your name right. And to the media’s credit they did. He’s now famous, and toast.

This is what happens when your desire to be known exceeds the strength of your content. This is what has been happening in music for over a decade. You can make it at home, put it on streaming services tomorrow and then spam everybody and ask for attention.

But attention is our most precious commodity. We guard it and give it up sparingly. And if you demand our time we’re critical. Milo thought we were in on the joke, but we’re not.

This is not about free speech, this is not about campus protests. This is someone playing by the new rules who believes the old don’t apply. Rise instantly and people are gonna be gunning for you. Especially the old straight media, which doesn’t like its anointed path to progress messed with.

Then again, it was Milo who blew himself up. With his comments about thirteen year olds and sex. He wasn’t ready for prime time. You can have a slew of Twitter followers, be the king or queen of social media, but when you try to cross over to the real world, beware.

Kind of like PewDiePie, who turned out to be featuring anti-Semitic content in his videos. Google and Disney ran from him immediately, because no one likes controversy. Look at Travis Kalanick… Having played his cards wrong with Trump, he jumped on the sexism at Uber controversy right away, said there would be investigation, appointed a “special prosecutor.” Because in the big bad world of reality there are rules.

Taylor Swift got caught in this net. She self-promoted, hiring a photographer to shoot her July 4th party so she could look cool to fans and then Kim and Kanye took a swing at her, as did her old boyfriend Calvin Harris, and since then it’s been radio silence. You see, Taylor Swift lives in a bubble, just like Milo and PewDiePie. They think their fans are with them, not knowing the rest of us abhor them and are aiming for them, waiting for that inevitable faux pas committed by someone who thinks their doody doesn’t stink.

So let this be a lesson for you, be famous for your work, not the penumbra. For the essence, not the marketing. Because people hate ads, and they hate ads for yourself even more. The look at me culture has limits, get big enough and there will be a backlash.

But the problem with most famous people today is there’s no there there. Milo Yiannopolous was not famous for his work, but outrageous comments made to get attention.

Will this same correction factor apply to President Trump, who believes if it comes out of his mouth it must be true?

But now that Trump is under the microscope it appears he watches cable news and tweets and talks with no further investigation, like a teenager, and those in the know keep crying foul.

You see it’s hard to play out of your league. Because it’s so hard to get to the top of anything and when you do arrive you don’t like upstarts crashing the party.

So, what we’re learning in the teens is society is not flat. Social mobility is just like economic mobility in these United States, i.e. not very fluid. Just because you’ve got a phone and some social media accounts that does not mean you deserve and can maintain fame. Better to dig down deep and do something worthy.

But that’s so much harder to do.