Kill your heroes and save yourself

Be your own saviour in a world full of grifters, phonies & conformists

30 years ago Noam Chomsky stated the following in an interview with David Cogswell (Cogswell authored the quintessential book on Chomsky):

“We shouldn’t be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”

While the token leftist radical has taken a sharp turn towards proto-authoritarian views in recent years, I still see value in this quote, especially in these times of global instability and uncertainty. 

Why we engage in hero worship

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have had the need to worship a deity of some kind. According to neuroscientists, there is some neural reasoning for this; according to Freud, there is an evolutionary basis for it. 

Early humans worshipped nature deities. In ancient Egypt, the solar deity, sun god Re, was worshipped.

Egyptian sun god Ra sailed in his boat across the sky during the daylight and transferred it back to the underworld at night.

In western Ethiopia the sun kings in Limmu was a part of the sun religion. The Munda people of India believed in Sing Bonga , the sun-spirit god. In South America, the sun and moon were commonly depicted as mythical figures. In Mesopotamia, star worship (astrotheology) was common.

Water was also seen as a divine power; fire is commonly believed to have both heavenly and earthly origins. Any naturally occurring weather event has been worshipped in some form or another depending on the culture. 

As humans evolved (or devolved depending on how you see it), this innate desire to worship also shifted.

Nature worship was replaced by faith-based worship which then dominated the globe for thousands of years. 

Emerald tablet (tabula smaragdina). Wikimedia Commons. 

Corporeal heroes are replacing faith-based heroes

But as we “progress”, i.e., become more untethered to reality, more people are abandoning their old beliefs — and with that comes the rejection of faith entirely.

In the U.S., the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) found that religion is on a serious decline. The number of Americans surveyed who are religiously unaffiliated increased to 27% from 16% in 2006—that’s a significant uptick. Today, just 16% of Americans surveyed said religion is the most important thing in their lives, down from 20% a decade ago. Religion is clearly less important for Americans today, but that does not mean hero worship is also on the decline.

The rejection of organized religion did not reduce hero worship. Quite the opposite. Organized religions have been replaced by new gods. And these gods have a human face. In other words, the worship of the immaterial has been replaced with the worship of the corporeal.

We worship celebrities, politicians, athletes, musicians, and other powerful, well-connected beings who are inherently flawed and complex. And we’re encouraged, pushed even, to do so. We laser focus on surface-level traits in a society that values superficiality over substance. Recall when the entire world, including mainstream media, gushed over Justin Trudeau’s socks at the expense of his policies. Thankfully the Trudeau fawning period has finally subsided somewhat since. The people we tend to worship are all cut from the same cloth: they often wield immense influence, are well-connected, and come from powerful families. Yet we still give them the benefit of the doubt that they are working in our interest.

It is these ‘heroes’ who are elevated in a society where faith is lacking. 

With no established framework on how to live combined with increasing instability and desperation, we find ourselves in a dangerous place where evil can flourish.

Nature has no ego. Faith-based religion has no ego (or at least its intent is not ego-centred). But man-made heroes are fuelled by their ego. Humans are ideological, flawed, corrupt, duplicitous, immoral, and power-hungry. They’re soul suckers and tricksters. They will steal your soul, charm their way into your lives, and have you depend on them to better your own life. But they cannot help you, only you can help yourself. 

Resist the urge for blind worship

The biggest problem with manufactured heroes is they inhibit our ability to think for ourselves. 

Consider the case of Elon Musk.

He is one of the best modern day examples of how harmful hero worship is. His devout followers have elevated him to God-like status, touting him as a revolutionary figure, a genius, a free speech warrior, and saviour to humanity.

Unsurprisingly, a number of studies found that Musk fans are the most insufferable of all fandoms surveyed. 

He’s often framed as a the ‘relatable billionaire’ who is Very Online, loves his memes, smokes pot, and couch surfs with friends. He’s worth an estimated $232 billion, yet his fanboys still see him as the relatable guy next door. But he’s as relatable as he is self-made.

When he took over Twitter, Musk’s fanboys became even more erratic. With every decision Musk made —even if they were self-serving or morally ambiguous—his devout followers were right behind him, backing him up, even at their own expense. Consider his ‘pro-free speech’ stance. He has a long, checkered history of silencing speech he does not agree with, yet his pro-free speech fandom continues to make excuses for him, as irrational as they may be.

Similarly, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his candidacy for presidency, many breathed a collective sigh of relief and hailed him as a hero. But as time went on, skepticism grew surrounding his stance on certain issues.

On October 7, he showed his true colours on one of the most important issues of our time. It was an opportunity to re-establish his anti-regime and (tepid) anti-war position, but he did the opposite. RFK Jr. used the same tired rhetoric as the establishment employing words like “unprovoked,” “barbaric”, and “Israel’s right to self-defense.” He also unequivocally supported Biden’s statement proving he is no different than our existing corrupt leaders. In his own bio, he vowed to end the forever wars, but when push comes to shove, he revealed what many suspected all along—RFK Jr. is a liar and an opportunist.

Fittingly, RFK Jr. employed Charles Eisenstein, the master of toeing the line, as his adviser. There are certain topics Eisenstein deems too controversial to dare speak about, and on other topics he employs flowery, bubble gum rhetoric, which I quickly learned is not because of his authenticity, but his appeasement strategy.

Of note, Eisenstein wrote an entire essay about the ‘feminine power’ but refuses, to this day, to acknowledge gender ideology and how it might hurt women. This is not because he is ignorant of the issues—quite the opposite. For those who don’t know: Eisenstein and his ilk silenced, mocked, ridiculed, and banned courageous women from his online community A New and Ancient Story (otherwise known as NAAS) under the guise of ‘neutrality’ and maintaining a ‘safe space.’ Before this happened, Charles was one of the few people I had foolishly propped up as a courageous voice of our time, but as I learned more about him, I, too had a rude awakening, and I learned that courage, more often than not, is found in ordinary people, not softball commentators who follow the ‘Be Kind’ dogma, as Charles does.

My disappointment with Charles is similar to the disappointment others feel towards RFK Jr. amidst his latest statements. Despite his family history, powerful connections, and contradictory statements, ordinary people blindly supported RFK Jr. and genuinely believed he would save them. But that veil shattered, too. More people are realizing he, too, is a flawed human being with his own agenda and ego to fuel and special interests to answer to. He’s a conformist and anyone who believes otherwise is woefully naive.

Since then, a number of other one-hit heroes emerged — including Oliver Anthony who wrote the viral hit song ‘Rich Men North of Richmond.’ Hundreds of thousands of people came out of the woodwork instantly dubbing him the ‘working class hero’ saying he should be president. Others told him he saved them. Overnight, this nobody was elevated to hero status with a single song.

While the 24 hours news cycle has deemed him no longer relevant (important to note that he is not well-connected or wealthy, and he rejected various million dollar record deals), this compulsive need to label anyone as a hero is a clear cut sign that we are struggling en masse, and we are desperate for someone—anyone—to save us.

Humankind already had a propensity for hero worship, but it seems we are now more readily willing to worship anyone that gives us a measly crumb of hope—a reflection of the current state of affairs. (Speaking of ‘hope’, let’s not forget how former U.S. president Barack Obama carried out an entire campaign weaponizing ‘hope’ and later inevitably disappointing millions. A classic political bait and switch).

“Nerthus” by Emil Doepler, 1905. Wikimedia Commons. In Norse mythology, Nerthus was a goddess ‘associated with peace and prosperity’

Let’s focus more on ideas, not heroes

Hero worship is irrational, foolish, and bound up in emotion and bias—it’s not conducive to pragmatic solutions or unifying in any meaningful way.

To circumvent hero worship, we must focus more on ideas, as Chomsky rightly argues.

Ideas will help us think more critically and resist reactionary thinking and groupthink that divides more than unifies.

An ideas-based society will help keep us focused on what matters, and allow us to openly and honestly engage in thoughtful discourse. But of course, this too is made more difficult especially when the powers-that-be censor certain ideas they deem problematic. If you dare explore unpopular ideas, you will suffer the consequences for it, whether it be being banned from social media, being deplatformed from speaking engagements, or getting fired, the court of public opinion will find a way to remove your ideas from polite society and punish you for it.

Worshipping heroes won’t get us any closer to solving the issues. Good ideas, however, lend themselves to good policy, good programs, and good leadership (emphasis on leadership, not leaders). Good ideas will help us find realistic solutions to real problems we face today.

If we resist hero worship, we also inoculate ourselves from ideology. We develop the ability to think more critically and be skeptical. When we resist hero worship, we consider a person’s character, motive, and actions more thoughtfully. We develop a stronger sense of intuition — something that is woefully lacking today because so many of us have lost the ability to think for ourselves (that ‘gut feeling’ we have shouldn’t be ignored).

We forget, over and over again, that humans are flawed, and that the hero we should be nourishing is ourselves. And we must aim to behave in a way that we can engage meaningfully with others, and not see other people as caricatures or idols.

It’s not that we need someone else to save us, that is up to us.

Modern-day heroes are simply flawed humans, nothing more. Best thing you can do is be your own hero. Be your own saviour. Take action in your own life. Work together with others to affect change. Think outside the box. And focus on engaging ideas, not idols.