The whole "pedestal" thing..that can go both ways.
I mean, let's take people who have a vision, do the work, leap the hurdles and DO something exceptional with their life, let's take these people and put them on a pedestal and use them as examples of what humans can do with their lives. I got no problem with that. Dreams, role models, inspirational figures, all that stuff is good, and a big part of waht keeps us from settling into an easily/permanently collective state of cloddy muddleheaded servitude. It's one thing to accept that knowing that you have options, quite another to think that that is the only role which you can ever fill in life.
Now, let's NOT place people on the pedestal for the purpose of creating an industry around them, or for glorifying them as being our intrinsic superiors, or for using their achievements to dictate to us what literal form/direction our achievements should take.
Heroes, not idols. That's what I like to see.
The pedestal is benevolent as long as there is always room for more people on it, and as long as rising to it is encouraged. It's not when it is used for a guard station at a maximum security prison. It may well need remodeling, but I don't think it ever needs destroying.
But inspiring people to dream, to act, to work, to more fully know who and what not just who they are but who they can be,hey, I'm ok with that.