Riding the Wave, 14. Not A God, A Human.

Yesterday evening, the news showed legions of fans expressing their mourning for Diego Armando Maradona, the Argentine football legend. It looked like a human wave washing against the Casa Rosada, the seat of Argentine government, where the casket was laid for viewing before the funeral.

There were riots when the viewing hours finished, and the time for the funeral had come. There were so many people, that many of them, waiting for hours in the streets, hadn't had an opportunity to say goodbye. They tried to assault the Casa Rosada, and were repelled by riot police. The news finished before the casket was able to leave for the cemetery, so I don't know just how events in Buenos Aires finished.

Maradona was a legend until drink, drugs, and too many women left him a burnt-out soccer player. Fame sat heavily on him, and helped to destroy a great career, one that rivalled Pelé's of Brazil. That fame helped him gather a following that, yesterday, was frightening. Hundreds of thousands of people crying and wanting to get a last glimpse of his casket, closed at that. I can't understand that devotion.

Yes, he played football like a genius. He was a national legend. But he was also a man, and, like a man, made errors of judgment. His technique may have been excellent, and something to learn from, but his character was not a role model to follow. All those crowds, screaming paeans, were not there because of his technique, but because he was a role model for them.

What makes a person a model to follow? The traditional reasons, honesty, intelligence, dignity, empathy, wisdom, seem to have evaporated. Now, the people who ignite passions are those who epitomize meteoric rises, without regards to how that rise happened. Simple fame turns one into a role model. Influencers on Instagram and TikTok have followers that consider them saints. One way to try to get young people to mask up by a network, is to get influencers from Instagram to send messages to teenagers that it's the epitome of cool to wear a mask. That is because role models of the traditional kind no longer seem to exist for adolescents. Now, it's who has the most followers on social media who should be emulated. 

Attempts to get youngsters to know about people who really made a difference, by having them do projects and look up information on people famous for their achievements that helped others, tend to backfire. Kids take a name from a list, look up information, write it down, hand it in, and that's the end of that. To kids, those are merely historic figures who did something interesting, but nothing else. They aren't someone to follow because they don't have accounts with lots of followers, nor are filthy rich, nor do anything very interesting. 

Ignorance is not only something to be feared in adolescents. Adults don't always fare too well, either. Instead of excoriating someone like the ex-King, who laundered millions, they want to find out how to evade their own fiscal responsibilities, just like him. Many are interested only in rich and famous people, and wish to be like them. So many are ignorant of the world around them; a woman I talked to a few days ago didn't even know what Brexit was, despite having an aunt affected by it. But she did know about the latest gossip of the rich and famous. 

That Maradona's early death was a shame, yes. That he should be mourned for that, and for the soccer talent lost to wasteful living, yes. But, that he should be lamented for having been a god, no. The crowds in Buenos Aires were yet another sign of how much society is still ignorant, and how we still worship gods for what we make them to be instead of for what they are. It's similar to all the Trump worshippers that have elevated Donald into a god. It's sad and it's scary. We still haven't learnt that what makes a man a god is not his lowest qualities, but rare assets that don't come from fame or money.

Life continues.