Hero Worship and Authoritarianism

Hero worship is a necessary prerequisite for the establishment and maintenance of authoritarian systems.

Trashing other people's heroes while promoting your own is a classic form of propaganda used by those intent on replacing one authoritarian system with another, or -- more commonly -- by those who seek to acquire the levers of power within an established authoritarian system.

Authoritarian systems cannot be sustained absent heroes and heroic figures from the past.

Thus I tend to be skeptical of anyone promoting heroes and hero worship.

They are in the business of establishing or sustaining authoritarian systems.

On Heroes

Anyone who has encountered my Internet ramblings over the last decade or so knows that I am not by nature into Hero Worship. Far from it. I am by nature a Skeptic and when the Spirit moves me I am a Rebel.

This has put me in the oddly ironic position of being seen as a Hero by others, something I find both inappropriate and grating.

Hero-worship has always been part of the political framework in this country, starting with George Washington, Father of Our Country, etc. None of his successors has quite matched his Heroic Stature, of course, but the idea that a President should be Heroic is deeply ingrained in the American psyche.

Obama inherited the Heroic Mantle of the Presidency when he ascended to the Throne, and as we know, his Heroic Stature has been frittering away ever since. It's bee One Damned Thing after another and all that.

And on the Internets, there is a kind of passionate level of Hero Worship, for all kinds of people, that almost makes me ill to witness. Whether it is Obama or Sarah or Glenn or Jane or some TV character or movie star, the Internet is rife with Heroic action figures and their devotees.

To me, Hero Worship is dangerous and foolish both for the object and for the subject.

Skepticism is always appropriate. Not partisan devotion; skepticism.

But that seems to be a rare characteristic among human-kind.

And getting rarer.