Question

Discussion 2: How is this tendency to look for mentors and heroes connected to social class (poor, working class, middle class, upper class) and our readings on the definition of culture?

Answer 1

The captioned tendency does has connection to Social class. Social class of our hero/mentor influences our choice strongly. Many a times our selected mentor/hero is from lower or upper class. A person who has done something great which has brought him to everyone's attention will impact the mass more if the person belongs to a lower class, for example -last year Ansar Shaikh became youngest Indian Administrative Officer by cracking the most difficult competitive examination in India. Now along with this boy's being a young man the thing that won public's appreciation and attention was his family background. Family lived in a remote village of Maharashtra, India and Ansar’s father drove autorickshaw to meet needs of his family and he. And there are numerous examples like this boy who rose above from lower class social background, won people’s attention and became role models/heroes for many of us.

While we tend to choose our mentors usually among middle class (as we can connect with them and relate to them more easily, like teenagers and young adults will look up to their teachers, coaches or parents as their mentors) our heroes may be from upper, middle or lower social class. Youth will usually choose their hero among upper class. The hero may be a celebrity, a great political leader, a Television anchor, one of the richest person of the world or someone very successful like Steve Jobs and so on.

Culture also impacts choice of Hero or mentor. A hero is admired by the society and is considered a role model. Usually a hero is from the same culture as one’s own as one’s culture is one’s pride and hero worship comes naturally in such cases. However, a hero can be from a different culture as well. However a mentor usually is from the same culture.