Idols and Role Models

[SortaCreative]

The idea of having a role model has been on my mind recently.

In recent years, especially in the UK, i've seen old entertainers, wrestlers and TV stars be outed as horrible people.

We all know what Chris Benoit did. He was my favourite wrestler for a long time and then he murdered his wife and child. Hulk Hogan, over the years, has become more and more of a cunt the more he opens his mouth. I grew up watching him as a small child. The Ultimate Warrior was a homophobic bigot. Michael Jackson was embroiled in the child molestation scandal. He was and still is one of my favourite artists of all time.

Bill Crosby raped over 30 people. There's been a slew of children's entertainers in the UK that have been arrested or accused of molesting children or pedophilia. You see athletes get arrested for domestic violence or drugs.

At what point does it feel like role models are just a waste of time? People are real and they have their bad sides. History paints people like Mandela, Gandhi and Winston Churchill as the great men of history. They all have their bad sides. Gandhi was a racist, Mandela was abusive and Churchill plundered India and left the entire nation to butcher themselves in the following partition.

Why do we look up to people? Why do we need role models?

[Westcoastvibes]

I think physics comes into play here metaphorically,

Each action has an equal opposite reaction. in your case, role models are looked up to and put on a throne because of their actions. It takes an equally impressive reaction to dethrone that person.

What i am getting at is this, we as people are more shocked and appalled to hear of a celebrity or similar being accused of these actions because we have a feeling of connection with them some how. Average joe blow we dont give a shit about because he has done no actions to elevate his importance.