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Ask a child who his role model is and without any hesitation, he'll name a sports athlete, an actor, or even a gangster. Yet, ask a child who lived in the 16th century who his role model was and he'll most likely reply with the name of a scientist, a musician, or an explorer.
The question of role models arose when I was looking up quotes to help motivate me to do my school work. However, I discovered that the quote itself wasn't all that important to me. In fact, it was who the quote was by. Was it Malcolm X, Mohandas Gandhi, or some unknown person. This led me to my next couple of questions: Who is my role model and who are the role models of those around me. Asking a couple of my friends and close others, I discovered that a Lebron James, or an Angelina Jolie, or even a 50 Cent were the predominant answers. This discovery left me heart-broken and melancholic. How can it possible that great people like Plato, Galileo Galilei, and other world-changing people could be brushed aside as if they had never lived?
Why is there is such an enormous disparity between the role models of kids living in this century versus those who lived some centuries before us? Of course, this question isn't constricted to just who your role model may be, it's a question of what factors have changed our ideology from the ideology of those who lived centuries before us. After many days of pondering over this question, I believe I have come to a couple of conclusions.
The first conclusion being that when kids do not have a helping hand a person willing to guide them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in a sense, they are left to be prey to the predator (the media). When a person who cannot fully make their opinion and who is easily impressible looks around and sees on television, on the internet, on billboards, people, who you and I both know, are not worthy of being role models, they will start to believe that this man/women is someone who I should imitate because of their fame, their wealth, and their great influence on others. As that child starts to grow and mature, he starts to assimilate with kids that have the same ideology as him, and together, they reaffirm each others beliefs and collectively strive to become that role model. When they fail in becoming that "role model" they try to make themselves feel better about their failures. How do they make themselves feel better about their lives? Well, they constantly criticize and belittle others . This is the exact reason that when you go onto AOL.com, the webpage is filled with news about actors, athletes, and the mistakes that they made last night or the day before that. This gives a feeling of empowerment to those who "failed" in reaching their goals and frankly, in life.
My second conclusion of why there is such an enormous disparity between who the role models of kids living in this century versus those who lived before us, is the media. The media with its constant barrage of news about actors/actresses, athletes, and other famous figures- does not care for people who have made or continue to make tremendous contributions to the world today. Instead, the media obsesses about what one actress wore last night, or what party the athlete will be attending. However, I ask you this: did you ever hear about that one Somalian family who hasn't had anything to eat for the past three nights? Or the family who gives out free food every night in the hot, humid day in Iraq? No, and you never will, until we, as humans, decide that we want positive role models in our daily lives who will help us become better people and who strive to better others- not people who spend thousands of dollars on a watch or a single dress.
Again, I would like to reiterate that this is not a fundamental questions just about a person's role model. It's a question of where the world is going and how as humans, we have been slowly leaning away from what matters, and more towards thing's that have no value in our daily lives. Why are people who have no reason to be acknowledged being acknowledged by everyone? Why are those who are fully deserving of being acknowledged, not being acknowledged for their great acts? I believe the answers to these questions is that we are insecure about our own lives and by having role models who are athletes and actors/actresses, we are able to keep our expectations low and not ever really expect anything great from ourselves. I believe that if this ideology and behavior continues, the human race, indeed, will be akin to the Eloi race that the Time Traveler in The Time Machine saw in his time traveling.
I thank you if you actually read all of this - writing is a way for me to release my feelings and having an audience would really give me pleasure. 🙂 Let me know what you think about what I wrote and you point of view on this topic.
The question of role models arose when I was looking up quotes to help motivate me to do my school work. However, I discovered that the quote itself wasn't all that important to me. In fact, it was who the quote was by. Was it Malcolm X, Mohandas Gandhi, or some unknown person. This led me to my next couple of questions: Who is my role model and who are the role models of those around me. Asking a couple of my friends and close others, I discovered that a Lebron James, or an Angelina Jolie, or even a 50 Cent were the predominant answers. This discovery left me heart-broken and melancholic. How can it possible that great people like Plato, Galileo Galilei, and other world-changing people could be brushed aside as if they had never lived?
Why is there is such an enormous disparity between the role models of kids living in this century versus those who lived some centuries before us? Of course, this question isn't constricted to just who your role model may be, it's a question of what factors have changed our ideology from the ideology of those who lived centuries before us. After many days of pondering over this question, I believe I have come to a couple of conclusions.
The first conclusion being that when kids do not have a helping hand a person willing to guide them 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in a sense, they are left to be prey to the predator (the media). When a person who cannot fully make their opinion and who is easily impressible looks around and sees on television, on the internet, on billboards, people, who you and I both know, are not worthy of being role models, they will start to believe that this man/women is someone who I should imitate because of their fame, their wealth, and their great influence on others. As that child starts to grow and mature, he starts to assimilate with kids that have the same ideology as him, and together, they reaffirm each others beliefs and collectively strive to become that role model. When they fail in becoming that "role model" they try to make themselves feel better about their failures. How do they make themselves feel better about their lives? Well, they constantly criticize and belittle others . This is the exact reason that when you go onto AOL.com, the webpage is filled with news about actors, athletes, and the mistakes that they made last night or the day before that. This gives a feeling of empowerment to those who "failed" in reaching their goals and frankly, in life.
My second conclusion of why there is such an enormous disparity between who the role models of kids living in this century versus those who lived before us, is the media. The media with its constant barrage of news about actors/actresses, athletes, and other famous figures- does not care for people who have made or continue to make tremendous contributions to the world today. Instead, the media obsesses about what one actress wore last night, or what party the athlete will be attending. However, I ask you this: did you ever hear about that one Somalian family who hasn't had anything to eat for the past three nights? Or the family who gives out free food every night in the hot, humid day in Iraq? No, and you never will, until we, as humans, decide that we want positive role models in our daily lives who will help us become better people and who strive to better others- not people who spend thousands of dollars on a watch or a single dress.
Again, I would like to reiterate that this is not a fundamental questions just about a person's role model. It's a question of where the world is going and how as humans, we have been slowly leaning away from what matters, and more towards thing's that have no value in our daily lives. Why are people who have no reason to be acknowledged being acknowledged by everyone? Why are those who are fully deserving of being acknowledged, not being acknowledged for their great acts? I believe the answers to these questions is that we are insecure about our own lives and by having role models who are athletes and actors/actresses, we are able to keep our expectations low and not ever really expect anything great from ourselves. I believe that if this ideology and behavior continues, the human race, indeed, will be akin to the Eloi race that the Time Traveler in The Time Machine saw in his time traveling.
I thank you if you actually read all of this - writing is a way for me to release my feelings and having an audience would really give me pleasure. 🙂 Let me know what you think about what I wrote and you point of view on this topic.
