I suspect that we’ve all done it: put people up on pedestals and regarded them as somehow superior beings. Certainly a lot of people do it all the time. Why else would people think it worth spending £40-odd a month to watch their favourites kick a ball around? Why else would people thirst for the latest celebrity news? Why else would people work their guts out to get their leader elected? Hero worship is all around us.
It seems a very odd human trait to look at people from a distance and reflect our hopes and ambitions onto them. The glamorous image seen from several steps away seems larger than life. Why does our mind play such tricks on us when we know perfectly well that our “heroes” are just as flawed as anyone else?
What is it about the distance created by television screens and newspapers that makes our pin-ups seem so much more alluring than people we know in real life? Do the limitations of the media coverage distort our perception? We don’t see how the celebrities treat their minions behind closed doors, we don’t hear how they speak to their mothers. Somehow in our ignorance we hope that because they are famous they are somehow “better” than average, even though we know that the opposite is true more often than not.
We raise our heroes up so high, then our image of them is tarnished when more of the reality seeps out. When we get closer in, the picture starts to look a bit more grainy and distorted. The residents of the red half of Liverpool must be in shock that their captain is accused of starting a brawl because the DJ wouldn’t put on a song he wanted to hear – even though we know that footballers are renowned for getting into trouble on their nights out. Blair supporters must cry themselves to sleep every night at the knowledge that someone who promised so much could achieve so little – even though we have a history of electing ineffectual and weak people to office.
What is it which leads us to expect so much from people who are, after all, made from the same stuff as everyone else? Why did people think that Gordon Brown could succeed where Tony Blair had failed? After all, politically they are peas in a pod. Why do we get excited about the latest Next Best Footballer or musician or actor?
We are just setting ourselves up for disappointment.
“The residents of the red half of Liverpool must be in shock that their captain is accused of starting a brawl because the DJ wouldn’t put on a song he wanted to hear…”
How many of them think it was wrong? Or that the ‘bizzies ‘ave fitted ‘im up, like’?
People are very much capable of decieving themselves, no media distortion required, sad to say…
I understand your opinion.
I think people want to believe something out of themselves.
That is the one of the cause of this problem, I think.
I don’t know it is good or wrong that people want too many heroes.
But it has worth to think about it.
Have a nice day!
But he is innocent BE. Even when he punched the annoying DJ in the hooter it was in self defence.
He has left court “With his reputation intact.” He wasn’t even reprimanded.
The problem is not that Gerrard got off … but that his fans really didn’t give a toss whether he’d done it or not.
I really think that many football fans are ‘fanatical’ in the pure sense of the word. Newspapers quite openly call their footballing pullouts ‘Mania’ and suchlike -an open admission that followers are suffering a mental illness. I know grown men whose moods are predominantly dictated by the fortunes of their football team. And it can be bloody irritating – especially seeing how the politicians tap into it because the football circus is so influential on British culture. Our nation’s flag has been hijacked – see the cross of St George and what do you think of ? Our country’s name has even be changed – Eng-ger-lund.
So long as Gerrard can score goals fans wouldn’t give a toss if he’d kept a harem of his daughters locked up in a cellar for sex sessions.
Rock culture isn’t far behind. Pete Townsend having been forgiven for his ‘indiscretions’.
My illusions about observing from a distance were shattered in 1971. There I was, sat in a Morris 1000 panda car in Deptford High Street, when a beautiful young woman in a short summer dress came floating across the road, all sinuously sensual. She was a vision of beauty and I was a smitten 19 yr old. As she approached the parked police car she stubbed her toe on the kerb and uttered, “F**K, F**K, F**K” very loudly. She then looked at me and said, “WHAT CHOO LOOKIN` At, CNUT”? I was heartbroken.
Justice is a fouler trollop on occasion, Hogday.
“I suspect that we’ve all done it: put people up on pedestals and regarded them as somehow superior beings. ”
Yep.
“The glamorous image seen from several steps away seems larger than life. Why does our mind play such tricks on us when we know perfectly well that our “heroes” are just as flawed as anyone else?”
Dunno.
My guess is that I’m gullible: when folk tell me they’re wonderful and I’m crap I have a tendancy to believe them.
I did a dissertation on something similar many years ago, and what vague memories I have of it goes something like this:
Those who are blessed with physical prowess are examples of a more highly evolved human than the rest of us. Our admiration for their more highly evolved physical skills makes us believe, directly or indirectly, consciously or subconsciously, that this superiority also applies to other parts of the individual’s physical/emotional make up.
Quite agree Ted! And what a subject for 8,000 words, I’m in awe sir. Yes, dress a yob in an Armani suit and you get a yob in an Armani suit (or in a Ferrari, in a BMW, in a Subaru with a loud exhaust pipe……)
Thanks for your comments ladies and gents.
Ted that is interesting. Why can’t we differentiate between different sets of “skills”? Why would someone who is built like an athlete necessarily be good at something involving brains? We are a weird species, that is for sure.
Hogday, the dissertation was about the difference in the reporting of the OJ Simpson murder trial between the white press and the African American press. That theory was a small part of it so nowhere near 8,000 words and probably nowhere near as useful:)
I don’t think this worship is limited to sporting prowess though. Look at the idolisation of rock stars/actors/others. Anyone who is perceived to have broken the mould and has risen above the average capabilities of the human peer group is seen to be the alpha and is subsequently afforded more respect as they have managed to rise above the crowd. Any deficiencies in other areas are ignored as a result (way too many examples to mention!).
But sport is so important in this, because what better way to show alpha status than in physical prowess. We’re all still animals at heart. Don’t believe me? What do you think would happen if electricity was turned off for a month, civilised debates on street corners? Sporting excellence panders to the basic instincts to follow strength and admire it, and is why a top footballer/rugby player/name your sport will always receive more general recognition and respect than someone equally as talented but in a more cerebral area.
Strength is still the evolutionary number one, and sporting achievement is the modern way of measuring it. Then throw in the fact that footballers (for example) are highly paid, therefore they have attained higher status in two areas that are deemed to be socially important.
Interestingly (or not, this is a long post!), having written this and not thought about it before, I think it shows us why many of us are nnplussed at modern day ‘celebrities’, the Big Brother contestants, the famous for no reason types (um, the Geldofs?). They subvert this process as they do little to rise above the hordes that is the human peer group, exhibiting no worthy physical or mental attributes that differentiates them from the norm, yet seem to have the perks that are asoociated with a higher, more ‘worthy’ achiever. As a result, achievement is cheapened because it appears that anyone can do it, which isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. But that’s a whooooole different argument I think:) Sorry for the long post, and please keep it up Blue Eyes-great blog!
Ted, you have put into words a theory I have been trying to crystallise. Thanks. And keep commenting, interesting comments always encouraged!
Its all becoming clear for me too, Blue! I now realise why I like Ossie Osbourne in Sabbath, but think his TV show is pants. I rate Ted!
You are my hero, you run.
Ha