The sociopolitical damage that Great Man Theory has done to western civilization is incalculable.

The ideological basis of "The American Dream" is the "rags to riches" story, which is itself Great Man Theory applied. It's never about the poor as a class (or even as a microcosm, such as an impoverished neighborhood) escaping poverty, but individuals in the fantasy. This has been done for centuries, but modern versions (such as Ready Player One) rather blatantly demonstrate how nothing meaningfully changes when the Great Man "wins" except now that the Great Man is on top. Black Panther, as has been recently mentioned by someone else on Hexbear, also comes to mind.

The most insidious part of Great Man Theory is the rarely-mentioned but very obvious implication of applying it society wide: most won't make it, but that's fine, fuck 'em, they weren't great enough. Building society's expectations around Great Men is also saying that most everyone else should remain in crushing poverty until they die in a ditch.

It's a crude but highly contagious secular version of Calvinism and prosperity gospel.

Some bazinga brains will even LARP as the Great Men they worship in a cargo cult kind of way. I've heard this a lot: "Bill Gates didn't finish college! I'm not going to finish college either! I'm putting everything into crypto, and once I'm rich, I'm going to be an entrepreneur!" :cryptocurrency: :dumpster-fire:

Are YOU great enough to get ahead with Great Man Theory? If not, worship someone who is and hope for table scraps! :so-true: