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

The interpretation of the character of a society is the result of the behaviour its people exhibit. Thus, it can have similarity or divergence that is contingent on the congregation of emotions and feelings of its citizen. Therefore, the 2 heroes or ideals which the society chooses, may have contradictory public images such as one may be known for resorting to violent measures in order to bring about social change and another may be known for restricting the use of violence. Thus, these two heroes cannot be used as a sample to understand the character of such a society. While, there is no reservation that such contrasting heroes cannot reveal society’s propriety, there are reasons to believe that heroes or ideals which have been chosen by majority of the population or which are embraced by the society at large can reveal important features of a society.

However true it may be the case that synchronization between heroes and people of the society can unequivocally highlight the acceptable aspects of a society, slight difference in the characters of heroes can impede this understanding of the society. One important point to consider here is that behaviour of a hero may not be same or may not follow straight path which may lead to unconventional or unpredictable understanding of a society. For example, the research carried out by the Singaporean University in 2004 with the objective to understand the behaviour of India’s struggle for independence concluded that it is difficult to ascertain if India had followed the path of non-violence or violence to achieve freedom in 1947 from the British Imperialism. The details of the study revealed that divergence in the heroes had made the results inconclusive since some people in India had embraced Mr. Gandhi, who practised non-violence and some people embraced others such as Mr. Bhagat Singh and Mr. Rajguru, who advocated for violent behaviour in order to snatch what was rightfully of Indians. Thus, antithesis character of these heroes had precluded the understanding of an Indian society.

However, one argument that supports the idea that heroes and ideals reveal features of a society is that if that society unanimously supports or embraces one hero or idea, then definitely this hero can illuminate the important aspects of that society. One way of looking at this idea is to find out if the society has followed one hero for a longer period of time who has embraced by majority, if not by all, similar to the process of electing a Government, then the study of this hero can replicate what society is. For example, the study conducted by behavioural scientist in 2008 in a city of Ranchi in India have predicted that the city of Ranchi is inclined to maintaining calm and composure in difficult time and is intend to handle the situation pragmatically since it wholeheartedly embraces Mr. Dhoni, who is considered as symbol of sangfroid and prudence and even the international cricket council has confirmed in 2006 that India has now a captain, i.e., Mr. Dhoni, who practices avoiding excesses in his behaviour and follows practical resolution rather than going by the established practices. Therefore, here Mr. Dhoni who is embraced by majority of the people in Ranchi has exhibited the larger character of the city of Ranchi.

Finally, one more assertion that buttress the belief that heroes and ideals explain the nuances of the society is that if the people of the society and the heroes chosen by them work in same direction as desire of the society, then these heroes explain lucidly the features of a society. If a society, though considered as extremist, has chosen its hero who work in solidarity with these people and practice what the citizen of the society desires, then this hero can definitely be the sample for studying the character of such a society. This can be illustrated by the judgement of the court in 1996 in India for a small town in Chhattisgarh in India which pronounced that the hero chosen by the people of this society practices revolt and reprisal against the liberals or Statesmen and support he receives from this whole society, is responsible for killings of several members of liberal party since people of this society, showed resentment against liberals because of oppression by liberals in the past, had chosen a leader who works according to the society he has chosen by, thus the court implicated the hero and the people of the society in a single judgement. Therefore, hero, here proved to be a good symbol for the whole society.

While concluding, if the heroes or ideals are large in numbers and none of them have harmony and none of them enjoys majority of the people of the society, then studying them can provide misleading results about the character of the society. However, if the hero is embraced by the majority or works according to the people of the society, then he can definitely be a good sample for features of the society. Therefore, the behavioural scientist must understand these nuances existed in the characteristics of heroes before coming to the conclusion.