Heroes

No, not a post about the TV series which I have still not seen, despite a lot of positive comments from a lot of different sources. And it is not about the David Bowie song, although he is referenced later on. It is about heroes in the technical sense of the word – what I would define as people you would want to be.

Inevitably it was a conversation in the pub that got me thinking. A mate mentioned that his heroes were slightly, shall we say, idiosyncratic. If memory serves, they were Lance Armstrong and Spike Milligan. And he said that he would bet that my heroes are idiosyncratic choices as well. Which is where the problem arises.

I couldn’t think of anyone. I could not think of one person who I would class as a hero. Not one person. And, one week on, I still can’t.

There are people who have played a role in politics who I admire. Thatcher would be an obvious choice for the erstwhile ex-Tory in me, and I do admire her single minded determination and her refusal to be brow beaten by an often virulent and vile opposition. That said, she did make mistakes, and ultimately disappeared into her own her own legend and lost power as a result. She can’t be a hero, she is too flawed.

Likewise, I admire Lyndon Johnson. He was a ruthless political pragmatist, someone who clawed his way up to being US President and managed to win one of the most spectacular victories in US history despite the many problems he had in presenting himself to the media. Above all, he was responsible for taking the practical steps that ended segregation and advanced civil rights so much in the US. Martin Luther King and John Kennedy may have talked about it, but it was actually Johnson who did it. But again, there is a flipside to Johnson. He was the president who sleep walked his way through foreign policy and as a result escalated the Vietnam War to the point where America could not win. And the stories of his womanising and of his boorish behaviour, such as conducting meetings with aides whilst he was on the toilet and flashing his genitalia to other men to prove how well endowed he was, do little to endear him to me. Lyndon Johnson – hero in some areas, irrevocably flawed in others.

Whilst I primarily bang on about politics on this blog, music is also an important part of my life. And there are musicians I admire. Morrissey, for example, displays a wit and an eloquence that has seldom been matched in modern music. But I really struggle with the undertones of racism and child abuse that pervade some of his music. And I do feel that anyone who, from the deepest reaches of middle age, has as the refrain to the lead single of their last album, “As I live and breathe, you have killed me, you have killed me/Yes I walk around, somehow, but you have killed me, you have killed me” probably needs to realise that they are no longer a teenager. I also like some of the music of David Bowie, but his eclecticism is sometimes too much for me. “Let’s Dance”? No thanks, Dave. “Rock And Roll Suicide”? Now you’re talking. Even the likes of Manic Street Preachers are flawed – their politics is heartfelt and eloquently expressed, but is overwhelming negative and naively left wing.

As a would be/wannabe writer, there are writers and scriptwriters that I admire. Russell T. Davies, Stephen Volk, Nigel Kneale, Dennis Potter, J G Ballard, Iain Banks and Tony Marchant are the names that spring to mind. But all of those authors have created work that I am less than fond of, and I would maintain that it is more healthy for a writer to try and carve out there own identity rather than slavishly follow a literary hero.

And there are people in my personal life who I admire and have personality traits that I would aspire to. But that doesn’t mean I want to be like them, and doesn’t mean they are heroes to me.

Which I suppose indicates where I am coming from with this post. For me – rightly or wrongly – I feel that the word hero is pretty much synonymous with worship. I don’t have a hero because there is no-one that I know of that I feel I could worship. At the end of the day – as my summing up of Johnson and Thatcher shows – we are all human beings, so whilst we may have a lot of good features, we also have flaws. There is a lot I can learn and a lot I can take from both people and I know and people I know of. But that does not make them heroes, because no-one is perfect. It may sound arrogant, and I don’t mean it to, since if the question had been “who do you admire”, then I could spieled off a list that lasts for hours.

But, as I always say at the end of this type of post, that is enough navel gazing. Normal service (ie calling our leaders an ancient slang word for a particular part of the female anatomy) will be resumed as soon as possible.