The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its role models.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim

Whether examining the character of the men and women a society chooses as its heroes or its role models is the best way to understand the character of a society is a debatable topic of discussion. Only after scrupulous analysis can a clear cut decision be made.

To understand the character of a society it is imperative that one interacts with the common man. Blending in with the people helps understand the cultural preferences, ideologies, traditions and even political issues of a society the best way possible. But it isn’t feasible to pragmatically speak to every individual of a society about their opinion on various matters. It is all the more difficult for societies that have diverse cultures existing in sync on the same mainland. In such cases, examining the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its role models seems to be a more practical approach to understanding a society better. For a country like India, with a population of over a billion and varied cultures it makes sense to rather examine the role models of the masses than study each sect individually. One example here would be the renowned cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. The country literally worships this hero hinting towards how big a role the sport of cricket plays among its countrymen.

But it wouldn’t be completely fair to judge a society based on the character of its role models as these paragons could be completely different individuals in personal life. All that a community knows of its ideals is what is portrayed to them via media and other sources. There is a high chance that these heroes have completely conflicting personality in their real life. It is quite possible that the role model of a highly conservative society actually has different sexual preferences in personal life. So simply going by the character of the individual would instead give a false idea of a rather orthodox society.

To sum up, examining the character of the role model of a society though a more practical approach to understanding the character of society, need not always be the best modus operandi.