I was sitting here thinking.
Asking myself all the deep and philosophical questions about stuff as I often do.
And I came upon the subject of role models.

Personally when I was younger I didn't really have any. But now as I am a bit older and have a much different perspective of the world I looked into the subject.

It seems to me like role models aren't really a good thing. Most people who have been considered successful on paper, lied, cheated, and crushed others to get to that point. And even those that didn't, still have many a skeleton in the closet.

In the end, basing your self off of someone else would limit your own self creation. And thinking of someone as the best they can be just leaves all kinds of room for letdown when you age a bit and discover they aren't all that they claimed they was.

Yet I still remember back when I was in school how most all the adults would try to shove the role model concept down my throat and even punished me (in the form of a lower letter grade) for not having one.

What do you all think about role models?
Good? Bad?
Necessary? Or a wast of time and energy?

Role models are BS and a waste of time... comparing yourself to someone else in ANY way is ALWAYS a waste of time because you are not that person. don't limit yourself by making comparisons.

@ Astral: Ah but if your don't have anything to compare against how can you make an educated hypothesis about where you stand at a point?

Without being able to gauge your abilities you would never know what you are and are not capable of. And that could lead to some disagreeable situations.


Though I do appreciate your input, it seems to be at a bit of an extreme point on the gamut.

there is nothing wrong with appreciating other people's achievements and aspiring to do similar things. however idolizing people is weird and the thought of it makes me uncomfortable.
there are shepards and there are sheep.

I think it's good to look at other people. If you find someone who is good at wushu you can copy their style and study them, but that's not to say that you worship the ground they walk on.

Learning from others is an invaluable tool IMO.

For this question I believe you were thinking to deep when you base your self off a role modle who may have lied or cheated to get where they are this doesn't really effect you. You don't know they lied cheated so this wouldn't effect you negatively and when some is a role model it's just saying hey this person has a similar life style that I would like to live your not limiting your own personal development by having one your simply just looking at what they did and saying if I want to get here I have to do this
The only negative thing about this is really if someone takes a drug dealer as a role model which is only negative if you see it as that

@ Pimp, I cant really keep up with that first part
(**For this question I believe you were thinking to deep when you base your self off a role modle who may have lied or cheated**) I never compared or based myself off anyone?

Like I stated I personally think role models aren't the best idea man kind has had.

Also, following your logic then if I want to be president of the USA all I need to do is pick an almost third world country with untapped resources. Claim it's full of terrorist, then take those resources so above mentioned *terrorist* don get em.
(Looking at past presidential actions and applying the I must do 'this' to get 'here' logic.)

@ Pig and Rage. I fully agree, though the sheepnotizing in the school systems (at least here in merica) is really noticeable to me.
Even at a college level it was pretty apparent, I was disgusted with school when I was in it, and I still am.
I didn't hate it because I got bad grades (cuzz I din't) I hated it because of all the total BS flying around.

The idea of a role model is appealing to adults because it means children are thinking about what they want to do and who they want to be in the long term, and following an approved path (in the case of having them shoved down your throat) to becoming that person. It is probably supposed to show you that anyone has the potential to be successful, and provide some sort of incentive to go on. If you try to emulate what society considers to be a good role model, then in essence you are trying to learn and pick up the valuable lessons which the better part of older generations had to learn the hard way.

Unfortunately I'm not sure it really works out like that. Although I invariably find myself picking up the characteristics of people I like (mostly just peers who I find funny, but also people on youtube channels I watch a lot of).

So to summarise, role models tend to only work to change someone's social characteristic through contact with that person, telling a 12 year old to try be like Abraham Lincoln isn't going to do anything for them. The best role models are the ones you don't even realise you have. You should be looking back to see how much someone has unintentionally changed you, not looking to the future to see how much you have to change yourself. To me, that is the problem. Adults should try to be likeable enough to kids to be emulated by them, rather than telling them who to like and who to be like.

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Yeah like Cocacobra said, there's nothing inherently wrong with altering the way you think/behave based on ideas or practices that come from someone else. Now, that said, obviously there are good and bad people in the world that you can 'model' yourself on.

What I've learned from my many years of existence, is that it's important not to go too far with it. You shouldn't look at someone and think that they have the answer for everything. That leads to a road of dogmatic, inflexible thinking. I (and many other geeky + arrogant kids) used to wholly subscribe to Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism. I even went out, bought and read a lot of her books. Because I was so convinced that everything she said was gospel, I never entered any conversation with an open mind, because I thought that I already knew all the right answers. Obviously, I didn't know everything - I was 15. When I look back at this period of my life I cringe so much.

What I'm trying to say is don't put your idols on a pedestal and assume that they're infallible. Like ImmortalPig said, make sure you recognise the difference between adopting ideas/behaviours that you think are cool and narrow-minded hero worship. Flexibility of thought is a hallmark of true wisdom.