Having someone to look up to gives a sense of hope, inspiration and encouragement. It tells you that you too can have that success or, even if you cannot, that at least wonderful things exist in the world.
Having someone to look down to allows one to pretend that achievement, competence and effectiveness at living are all impossible. It makes you feel good about your delusion because it gives truth to the delusion. Of course, to maintain this way of thinking you have to ignore, among other things, that greatness and integrity are part of every society and civilization, no matter how troubled the times may be, on the whole.
When greatness becomes not only the minority trend, but stops altogether, then all of life will be at a standstill…and that hasn’t happened yet.