Monkey See... Monkey Do

With the constant pop-culture influence on everything these days, it is very likely that what is seen, heard, or read is directly influenced by a previous person's work, or a direct update of the work. This is common, and I am not saying that it is wrong. After all, imitation is said to be the most sincerer form of flattery. Imitation can be as blatant as goths, Elvis impersonators, Cosplayers, or mini-Kiss. But I am sure that almost everyone has someone that they look up to and base there persona on. This form of imitation is seen in the movie Pitch Black. The character Jack wants so badly to be like Riddick. He (later found out to be she) fashions a pair of goggles to imitate Riddick, wishes to get a "shine job" on her eyes, and in The Chronicles of Riddick gets put into a prison that Riddick had been previously in. She idolized Riddick and wanted to be just like him.

Another type of imitation is the imitation of a belief or idea that one person sees. This has been seen through the years including the spread of communism with Marx, the followers of Che Guevara, and many more. You see this view in V for Vendeta. Sure at the end of the film, there is a mob of people that are dressed just like V, but that is just a visual cue that they all believe in what he is speaking out about. These people believe in the same ideas that are being spoken out by V, but are unable to speak out because of the corrupt government. The idea and the man are looked up to and passionately followed by many.

With so many people looking up to others in society, what would happen if someone that you looked up to lets you down? What if the person that you think is so great ends up to be just ok? Most people would feel let down and find someone else to look up to... but in extremely small amounts of these cases, the person that was let down could turn into a super villain who has the life goal to kill the person they looked up to. That's right, I am speaking of Buddy Pine/ Syndrome from The Incredibles. Buddy looked up to Mr. Incredible when he was a child, but when he was let down he turned into a villain that vowed to kill Mr. Incredible. Now, I am not saying that everyone that is let down by a person they look up to will try to kill them in the end, but there emotions will take a hit. Everyone looks up to a person so you could say that individualism goes only as far as who you copied it from.