Hero Worship
Heroes are such a part of the human psyche, everything from the pop culture heroes shown above to the real world heroes facing danger in the ER or the grocery store during a pandemic. People need a sense of the heroic and it is a good thing. It inspires us to consider what people are capable of under extreme circumstances. It always brings us to consider our own capacity for greatness.
No, I think an appreciation of heroism is a very good thing. Worship on the other hand gives me much more hesitancy. Worship connotes surrender of one's own judgment to a higher focus and that surrender of judgment is where I have a problem. When, instead of worship, it is a genuine love that embraces the truth, then I am much more comfortable, for that allows new information, new input, acceptance of contradictions when they prove to be established truth.
History unfolds new understandings of our heroes on a continuing basis. If we allow ourselves, the uncovering of flaws and negative tendencies in those we deem heroic actually enhances their value in an honest mind. I like my heroes to be human. George Washington examined is much more inspiring to me than George Washington shrouded in myth. Were I a Washington worshipper, which so many of his countrymen were (especially after his death), I might actually believe that he couldn't tell a lie. He would become as one-dimensional as some of the pop culture icons like Superman and Batman once were.
Worship involves too much denial to be healthy. It involves too much tunnel vision, too much simplification. It can be replaced by a healthy love of its object of affection, a love that enjoys the roller coaster ride of honest discovery that doesn't sacrifice any of the passion or inspiration. It introduces bumps in the road, but that is part of the texture so necessary to the authentic.
Love your heroes, whether they are the searchers of science, the healers, the legislative lions, the just rulers of countries or the opponents of the unjust. Insist upon knowing them as they are, not as the image their handlers would present. Love them in reality, because then you have a chance of finding the inspired hero resonating within yourself.
And, before you get too serious about yourself, go ahead and watch a swashbuckler on Netflix. It's a hoot with hardly any worship potential!
You have hit the nail right on its head. By all means admire and like your make believe heroes but don't worship them. That is for a different realm altogether. And watching swashbucklers on the screen may well be good for today's conditions but, there are real life ones everyday like our policemen or armed forces personnel, who never fail to fascinate me.
ReplyDeleteI am also feeling the heroism of so many Frontline people in this crisis. And for some people used to action, used to fixing situations with action, staying home in and of itself is a heroic action of a different sort.
DeleteI couldn't agree more - I think most of us outgrow the worship part as we age and experience life butthen along coes a phenomena like 45nand it really makes me wonder,
ReplyDelete45 makes me wonder and reassess on a daily basis. He is a symptom that becomes a cause, but I'm always trying to consider what he is a symptom of and what the effects off his causes are.
DeleteArchetypal hero narratives begin with a necessary descent into the unknown. The hero loses all the worldly status elements of the ego and is broken down to the most vulnerable human state. To survive, the hero must learn to value and reconnect to the shared power of community to accomplish what no individual can do alone. This new perspective is the healing balm/treasure /grail the hero shares when returning to the previously known world. This is how individuals and societies change and grow..
ReplyDeleteWe as a species are in the descent stage of the heroic journey thrust upon us by this pandemic. People are being stripped of their worldly status and rendered vulnerable. Will we learn to value and reconnect with each other in order to survive?