Claim 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 Reason Heroes and role models reveal a society s highest ideals Write a response in whic

The prompt suggests that the best method of understanding a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or role models. In my opinion, I mostly disagree with this statement and argue that one cannot grasp the full character of a society solely based upon analyzing its heroes.

If the majority of a society idolizes a public figure then it would be reasonable to conclude that their beliefs and values must align with that figure. Take for instance, a society that supports and encourages the ideologies projected by Adolf Hitler. Logically, their acts of support and empowerment of Hitler is an obvious indication that they wish to eliminate people of Jewish decent and support euthanization. This example illustrates the rational connections and conclusions that one could make of a society’s character based upon their role model, as another society who values the lives of Jew’s and do not believe in murder would not support such a leader.

However, leaders are not always appointed by the society. Rather, sometimes leaders come into power through the use of force and manipulation. For instance, Hitler was not nominated into power through democracy. That is, many people in Germany strongly disagreed with his goals and desires for the world and there were many anti-nazi groups formed to contest his power. Nonetheless, people who openly fought Hitler’s wishes were executed; thus, many were silenced by fear. That being said, to judge a society based upon their leader would be ignorant, as it is possible that the citizens were not given a choice as to who their leader would be.

Moreover, a society may have been deceived and willingly appointed their leader based off false promises. This phenomenon can be observed in many instances in history. For example, Donald Trump made promises to many uneducated, low-class citizens, stating that he will provide financial assistance if they elect him as president. However, this was not his true intent, as he has only continued making wealthy people become richer, and put the poor in greater debt. In addition, Trump did not win the majority vote of the public – this indicates that the majority of America does not support him as their leader. That being said, it would be prejudice to judge the character of a society based upon their leader, as the people may have been victims of manipulation.

Indeed, there are many factors to account for when discussing such a complex topic. While it is possible that a society willingly empowered their leader with full knowledge of his motives, there are also cases there society had no power to decide or were simply deceived. For these reasons, my opinion remainst hat one cannot grasp the full character of a society solely based upon analyzing its heroes.