Having Heroes, Imitating Others, and "Being Yourself"

Heroes are people we look up to; people we want to be like. According to Professor Allan Bloom, the idea that we should have heroes tends to wither in a culture where we are encouraged to "be ourselves." At least that seemed to be the case with his students. Both Allan Bloom and Jason Hood observe, however, that we all have heroes and we all imitate others, whether we realize it or not. Even though people may claim they want to "be themselves," you will usually find that their "selves" look a lot like certain other "selves" around them (or on TV).

"Having heard over a period of years the same kinds of responses to my question about favorite books [i.e. dead silence], I began to ask students who their heroes are. Again, there is usually silence, and most frequently nothing follows. Why should anyone have heroes? One should be oneself and not form oneself in an alien mold...[But] from what source within themselves would they draw the goals they think they set for themselves? Liberation from the heroic only means that they have no resource whatsoever against conformity to the current 'role models.'"

-Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (1987 A.D)

"...Imitation is simply inescapable. From birth to adulthood, imitation drives our behavior and beliefs. Peer pressure, the herd mentality, word of mouth, and other social factors and processes create fresh plausibility structures that facilitate experimentation with drugs, religion, facial hair, sushi, and new television programs. We rarely adopt a child, try a new diet, or engage in fasting and prayer unless exemplars model these actions and the mindsets that make the actions possible. We keep up with the Joneses, sometimes with reckless abandon, sometimes almost subconsciously duplicating their patterns of speech, consumption, dress, and recreation. We don't often use the word imitation to describe this phenomenon, perhaps in part because we love to think of ourselves as unique and independent actors. But we are all imitators, shaped in a thousand ways by what we see and hear around us."

-Jason B. Hood, Imitating God in Christ: Recovering a Biblical Pattern (2013 A.D.)