Former arbiters of taste must have felt (as so many apostles of 'traditional values' and other high-minded tags for restriction and conformity do today) that maintaining the social order required a concept of unalloyed heroism. Human beings so designated as role models had to embody all virtues of the paragon-which meant, of course, that they could not be described in their truly human and ineluctably faulted form.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Social order often demands idealized heroes without flaws, which denies their true human nature and prevents honest understanding of role models.
- In plain terms
- People want perfect heroes to follow, but this ignores their real human flaws.
- What can you take from it?
- Reject idealized role models to see human beings truthfully.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What happens when heroes are fully human?
- Why do we need perfect models?
Another view
Some societies function better with idealized standards.
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