Hero Worship Ain’t No Good

So, what would have been an appropriate photo?

Here’s my original opening for this post:

             “I’m here to say I do not understand hero worship.  I realize it has been ingrained in us since the dawn of humanity.  I realize it sits at the core of civilization and that every society ever recorded has elements of it throughout their history.  I get it.  But like the human appendix, it could be a vestige human trait that if removed, we could still function.  My guess is that we would flourish.”

            

             Why do I keep forgetting that I’m not an expert in anything and that my childhood hero was George Carlin, who spent 15% of his career talking about farts?  I’m observant, not smart.  I’m funny, not an authority on jack shit.  Anyway, now that my pretense has been dropped, here’s a genuine Mercurio/Dimeangry post.

             Hero worship is a dead end.  Right around 1776 or so, when we were trying to formulate a new type of government, bringing together all sorts of white dudes with differing views on how to construct a nation, we should have begun to eliminate the concept of hero worship.  It can’t be done from the outside, it’s something we have to do for ourselves.  Hero worship is why we had kingdoms and monarchies and lordships and all of that nonsense for so long.  It was the belief that certain people were better than ourselves.  By birth, wealth, achievement, or an ascribed status, there are people we think are just…better. 

             Which, if you’ve been paying attention, is all a bunch of horseshit. Politics and fame keep those notions alive. We place actors and musicians and people who are famous for being famous on pedestals because that’s what we’re used to. We give them the attention and then we covet it for ourselves. If their talent got them where they are and they succeed as artists, that’s enough.  They aren’t really anything more than that.  When you hear about Michael Jackson or Bill Cosby committing heinous crimes, you shouldn’t be heartbroken.  You should be ashamed or enraged.  They weren’t heroes.  They were just broken men.  Your attachment to their art is your business, but as far as referring to these people as fallen heroes…they aren’t.

             Everyone’s mind is made up about the current administration, so I’ll skip the obvious bullet points.  But I have to point out that the man who holds the highest office in the land had absolutely no public service record at all, and by the looks of it, had little grasp of what the job entailed.  He got there by hero worship.  His fans blindly followed an attitude, or the empty promise of a different America, one that no human being could deliver. I included the term ‘fan’ on purpose.  Heroes have fans.  The people we elect to run the most powerful democracy in the world don’t need fans.  Internet celebs on YouTube need fans.

             All these heroes are just flawed human beings.  Can’t we just be honest about these things?  MLK was a womanizer.  He still accomplished quite a bit. Edison was a prick, Tesla was crazy, Jobs was a loon.  John Wayne skipped out on WWII and became an American icon.  Stallone skipped out on Vietnam but made millions as Rambo and Rocky with his star-spangled trunks. 

             From what I can gather, humans have an innate need for belief.  Maybe it helped us keep moving when we didn’t understand fire or what a rainbow was. It’s locked in there, and through spirituality, we exercise that part of our brains.  Somewhere in the back of our minds, we want to see a little of the spiritual manifest itself in our reality.  Something we can see and touch.  We’d like to think that people are special in a way that we aren’t, as if they were touched by something we believe in but can’t see. I’m here to say, it’s time to let that shit die. Your belief is a beautiful thing that you get to nourish and design all by yourself.  Having blind faith in a person because you need proof of what you believe is a dark road that leads to trouble.

             Healthy skepticism.  I feel like this is something that needs to be encouraged.  It is one antidote to the ills of hero worship.  You’re famous?  So what?  Congratulations, but you aren’t a better human being than me.  You can just sing better. You want me to elect you? Keep your catch phrase. Let’s see your record.  Detail how you will get things done.  Tell me who you’d hire.

             I realize that is next to impossible. Hero worship is a multibillion-dollar industry.  Do you know that famous mediocre singer Jessica Simpson is worth over a billion dollars?  It’s because she has a successful fashion and makeup company with her name on everything.  Exactly why would you buy perfume from Jessica Simpson?  Reality TV has turned hero worship into a parody of itself.  Yet millions watch, and they make millions from them. 

             Have you ever pulled a thread that turned out to be connected to one hundred other sweaters?  I feel like I could go on for hours on this topic, opening up a new tangent every 300 words or so. 

             Skepticism isn’t pessimism.  It a mature way of avoiding rip-offs and heartbreak.