I use the term Pedestalization to describe the act of putting someone on a pedestal. Hero worship is pedestalization. Some people also pedestalize their friends or partners in a way that makes it impossible for them to see or acknowledge their flaws.

Pedestalization is the inverse of demonization. Both acts are dehumanizing.

If you intend to do some kind of work in public, I think it’s a good idea to actively discourage people from pedestalizing you. Once you start to get some attention, you’ll occasionally hear from people who say grandiose things about you, often in a joking way – “you’re my hero,” “you are a god,” etc. In the early stages it’ll often feel kind of silly and harmless. But I recommend responding to these with some form of “I’m just some person, y’know?”

Because there actually are people out in the world who are looking for some sort of cult leader to worship. This is counter-intuitive to me. I’ve never particularly wanted to worship anyone or anything. If anything, maybe I have some reverence for curiosity, exploration, playfulness and so on. But people are people, y’know? They are capable of goodness and evil, kindness and cruelty, and so on. A person can do great things, it doesn’t make them Not A Person.

But there’s something about the relationship between the worshipper and the pedestalized… fanboys seem to legitimately enjoy the disparity in status between themselves and the hero that they pedestalize. They want someone to worship, to tell them what to do, who to be, how to act. They want to relinquish responsibility. In this regard, I bet the Pope is lonely, in the sense that all leadership is lonely.

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When you worship your heroes, you distract them from the process that enables them to make great work. Encourage the process, participate in the process. They’re people too. Every creative mind is always yearning for more good minds to play with.