Have things gotten any better?
As a child growing up in the 1970s, we could find heroes in fiction and reality. Television's characters were mostly either over the top evil or over the top good. The good characters may not have been realistic, but you could try to be as good as, Captain Kirk, Laura Ingles or Mike Brady.
They may have been unrealistically good, but shouldn't we strive for that?
Look at the remakes and reboots for some of TV's characters:
The new Star Trek's Captain Kirk is essentially OK, but kind of an @sshole. Same with the reboot of Battlestar Galactica. Replaced are the squeaky clean Lorne Green and Richard Hatch with characters you really don't want to emulate.
“'Oh, realism! Oh, here, oh, now, oh hell!'”- Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury predicted this would happen decades ago in the Martian Chronicles.
I haven't even started on reality TV. There are NO people in there you would want to be like. Across the board, reality television features people we either hate, despise or pity. Otherwise they are not deemed "entertaining." .
Even many of our childhood heroes get smudged, buy attention seeking people looking to smear someone's reputation and history for the sake of "entertainment."
I used to look up to people like John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. Look what has happened to them in recent years with scandals and rumors of scandal.
Can you honestly think of a hero you have in recent decades? Someone who stood out and wasn't smeared by someone somewhere.
I used to have Neil Armstrong and John Glenn. After Armstrong's death (and some before) news came out about his divorce and what a bad husband he was. Really? I didn't need to hear that!
John Glenn has held up. So far the only other decent figure I could find was Mr. Rogers. So far no one has been able to smear him.
Consider someone like Lance Armstrong. I know I'm going to get beat up here, but hear me out.
Now, he has a reputation for not being a nice guy. He's probably not a nice guy but, in beating cancer, starting the Livestrong Foundation and Charity he inspired people to survive and probably saved thousands of lives just by being an inspiration. Nothing else.
I realize the search for truth is a squeaky clean attribute, but was it REALLY necessary to go back and smear what looked like a modern day "Superman." (Don't get me started to what they did to Superman). Wasn't the inspiration he created and the lives he saved and the hearts he touched worth more than the outcomes of races run over a decade ago.
REALLY think about it. What have we lost versus what have we gained??
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