I’ve been thinking about this tweet recently
Throw your heroes, rockstars, and messiahs in the trash where they belong.
https://twitter.com/cooperq/status/1173786333384364032
The rockstars are replaceable
We as a society (I think so, at least where I live and the people I read messages from, and to a certain extent, me myself am doing this too) are putting too much trust in the ‘big man’ theory. That one person is responsible for great leaps forwards. ‘Steve Jobs created the iPhone’ No he didn’t. He had thousands of people working for him. They all worked on it. And if Steve Jobs hadn’t been there, someone else had done it. The technology was ripe for it, and many companies were working on similar ideas.
Hero worship makes people one dimensional characters
It is great if you admire qualities in people. But recognize that they are people. There is no such thing as a saint. Everyone has flaws. By making people heroes you have to muffle away all their problems and put all their great things in the footlight (this metaphor doesn’t really work that well here… I’m not native English so I hope you forgive me). For example, Greta Tuhnberg, a symbol for climate change, gets criticized for traveling with a car. That does not detract from her message. If you stand for a position you are still allowed to make mistakes.
So should we throw them in the trash?
I don’t know. I think symbols are powerful. We should remember that the people we call heroes are flawed people, just like you.
I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload. You can join in yourself by visiting https://100daystooffload.com, post - 12/100
Find other posts tagged #100DaysToOffload here