Connor BeatonFound of ManTalks | Empowering Men to Build Better Lives, Relationships, and Minds

Men’s Choice of Heroes Matters

10 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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In this monologue, the speaker argues that the heroes men choose are among the most consequential decisions they make, as these choices have historically shaped men's perception of reality and their actions. He contends that contemporary male disarray stems from a collapse of "masculine architecture"—the loss of clear masculine idols and models to emulate. The speaker emphasizes that throughout history, men have not merely admired predecessors randomly but have deliberately imitated them, a process he links to the controversial Great Man theory of history, which posits that great individuals drive historical change.

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Your choices. Your choice of heroes might be one of the most important decisions that you will ever make. When you look back throughout human history, men's choices of heroes have fundamentally shaped the way that they have perceived reality and their actions. All of these men were being heavily influenced by the men that came before them. One might argue that in today's climate and times, the reason why so many men are in disarray is that there is a kind of collapse of masculine architecture that one could look up to masculine idols, masculine models that men can point to and say, I want to move in that direction. That's a noble, worthy aim for me to try and achieve. This is not random admiration that men throughout history have had. This is a kind of imitation across the centuries. And it points to a little bit more of a controversial but powerful idea, in my opinion, known as the Great man theory of history.