It seems to me (from my old and dissociated position) that alot of the aspirational figures of todays youth are gangstas and humourless thugs - OK maybe an overstatement worthy of the Sun but bear with me for a minute! What I want to know is who would you put forward, real or fictional, as an aspirational figure and why?

I'll start the ball rolling with:

John Steed (Avengers character - but NOT the movie incarnation!) because he was smart but worldly wise, could fit in with people without losing his individuality, could hold his own but didnt feel the need to resort to violence as a first resort, always did the right thing, played on his own terms and had a sense of humour about everything - himself included!

or

Leonardo Davinci for being a true renaisance man and showing how artificial the arts/sciences division is!

Fantastic question!
I constantly find people to aspire to they are usually people of confidence and self belief and mucisians - Michael Stipe, Ani Difranco, Tori Amos - I think that its the people that make us feel like we connect with others, that inspire us to keep the connection going and to find anything within ourselves that will connect within someone else.

Don't you find most aspirational people are all usually flawed in some way? Churchill was flawed in many ways, but his one outstanding contribution overides his faults, is this the same with most?

Bruce Lee - could kick the arse of anybody who crossed his path, and overcame massive cultural bigotry to become the most celebrated Karate film star prior to his death in 1973 from an allergic reaction to headache tablets.

Bill Gates - Genius Millionaire, nuff said.

Could be right about Bill Gates.He may be a geek,but we wouldn't be able to operate on this forum without him

Originally posted by uncleheed
Could be right about Bill Gates.He may be a geek,but we wouldn't be able to operate on this forum without him

You probably would - its written in PHP which is an open source product and probably runs on Apache on a *nix server neither of which are microsoft products!!!!

Originally posted by evildrneil
You probably would - its written in PHP which is an open source product and probably runs on Apache on a *nix server neither of which are microsoft products!!!!

Billy boy may be geek,as i said,but you are streets ahead in the geek stakes!

Originally posted by evildrneil
You probably would - its written in PHP which is an open source product and probably runs on Apache on a *nix server neither of which are microsoft products!!!!

M$ has probably done more for open source software than anyone else though - it's because of peoples dislike of all things M$ that it gets so many people into open source development etc. Bill Gates might be an arse but he is without doubt an amazing businessman :)

BG is more busines man than geek.

I met a Geordie who said his aspirational figure (meaning 'hero') was Paul Gasgoine. I said 'what a chubby alcholic wife-beating semi-literate?'
And he got really offended for some reason...
And started going on about how she deserved it.
One mans hero is anothers villain.
I would prefer a hero that had done something meaningful for the world, not just been good at kicking a ball about.

Exactly the point I was trying to make - role models are important and I dont really think 'gangsta rappers' and footballers with more money than IQ, morals and personality combined are really the best ones!!!

What about the people featured on that 100 greatest Britons? Did anyone vote on that? I suppose many of the people on there were the sort that we're on about in this thread. But does anyone know of any less well known but equally great Britons who weren't featured on it? My mate for example was talking about some bloke called Cochrane who was connected with South America in some way - I've never heard of him before.