Hero worship, we all indulge in it. We all have people we look up to it. People who we think can do no wrong. We place these people on a pedestal. We think very highly of them and are greatly offended if they are spoken against.

Ten years ago the heroes would have been political leaders, war veterans, inventors, scientists, royalty or social workers. Today we worship actors, singers, super models, socialites and anyone else who may be a minor celebrity. Some of these “so called” celebrities are truly not worthy of such worship. They are shallow, tactless and sometimes even lack general intelligence or at least that is the image they like to put across.

Then there are celebrities like Oprah Winfrey who deserve to be looked up to. I do not take issue with the fact that we worship these people, simply because they are famous and live glamorous lives, my concern is that we aren’t worshiping something that is real. I understand that heroes are never really what we think they are. We can never know the real people, but at least the hero’s of yester year had a real core. We could back up the image we created with actual work that they did. Some of the newer batches of heroes seem to have attained their status just for being who they are.

It irks me that most people today cannot find role models that have true achievements to their name. On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder, if a person inspires you, gives you confidence and encourages you to be better, does it really matter who they are and what they have done? Does a hero really need to be heroic to inspire us, or is us simply thinking of him/her as heroic enough for inspiration to come?