On Icons

Icon = a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration.

When exhibited culturally, an icon is representative. 

• Marilyn Monroe
• Mussolini
• Churchhill
• Cesar Chavez
• The King of England

I’m ruminating on this for two reasons:

1. The U.S. just went through a political election focused almost exclusively on figureheads
2. 57% of people in Gen Z want to be influencers

Don’t puke.

This is something we have to think about.

Icons represent — and they do that in some tangible ways:

• They embody a collective ideal or set of ideals 
• They provide a visual illustration of ideal behavior (action)

Icons don’t self-generate (much to the chagrin of 57% of Gen-Zers, apparently). 

Like all of us, they only gain life through someone else.

We (the collective ‘we’) animate the beasts or beauties, creating this phenomenon.

And it seems we’re hardcoded not just to create it, but to sustain it.

I Want to be Like You-oo-oo

Before we’re even aware, we look for something/one to copy. It’s our entire method of formation. It works. We get all the basics down this way (eating, walking). 

We don’t outgrow this instinct. We get better at it.

“Mimicry [is] the spontaneous imitation of an interaction partner.” 

We may stop looking to others for cues on how to get a spoon to our mouths, but the cue-seeking/pattern-identification/what-am-I-supposed-to-do-now dynamic persists.

In years of existential identity formation (i.e., adolescence), this dynamic expands. Our peer group grows and we seek icons that provide aspiration for our collective identity.

If you don’t think this is real, I give you the only exhibit you need: Taylor Swift.

Interrogating Our Icons

What is familiar is rarely understood. To me, that’s the whole point of this analysis: let’s try to suss out what’s really going on here, and whether our not the role icons play in our collective and individual life experience is good… or not.

The answer will vary by individual, but there’s one big takeaway I want everyone to … take… away. Not sure how to say that.

It’s that your association or even allegiance to an icon is a choice. 

A.

Choice.

A choice that you make.

And it can change the course of your life.

(Drama, but true).

Blind Forces

Arthur Schopenhauer believed that the blind force of will shaped our perception of the world, making our experience of it inherently subjective. I mean, he was also a real pessimist, which I guess you would be. 

Let’s put Trump in the hotseat for a second.

Two people look at him.

One thinks: racist, homophobe, sexist, criminal.

Another thinks: protector, political genius, statesman, savior.

The subjectivity is alive and well: depending on what you want to think (“force of will”), either of these can be true to you.

That circles back to the ‘icons are what we make them’ statement above.

Maybe Let’s Not Be Blind

Here’s where choice comes in.

People get swept up in the rightness or wrongness of their interpretation of influencing characters, or what I’m referring to here as icons.

They think, this person stands for everything I believe in! 

And they join a group of people who are chanting the same chant.

A sense of belonging sweeps in.

A character to imitate meets our internal need for such a thing.

And they become … taken.

As in, ‘I’m quite taken by you.’

Enamored.

Enchanted.

And that right there is the point at which an icon you simply agree with or want to be like becomes something that poses an existential threat.

Hear me on this:

Blind allegiance poses a threat to our societies, subcultures, etc. - but it poses the biggest threat of all to you.

Your agency.

Your uninspected exertion of will to say, ‘Yes’ to everything someone else is or thinks or does.

It’s an incredible submission.

An unbelievable surrender.

And it’s wrong.

A Choice

Mature people thoughtfully analyze life. They aren’t subject to the whims of the moment. They don’t get ‘swept away’ by waves of change, because their feet are firmly planted in the truths they’ve chosen. 

The truths of who they are.

Of what the world is and how it works.

Of their role in it.

Icons can be completely innocent and fun. But sometimes they are not. Sometimes they create entire movements born of our darkest impulses. And sometimes, they threaten to erase our very agency… the right of the self.

All I want you to take away from this is: you have a choice.

Choose wisely.