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November 27, 2005 at 11:02:26
by Rob Kall Page 1 of 1 page(s) |
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A hero is not necessarily someone who survives being in a war, or who happens to pull someone out of a car wreck. We call the former a survivor and the latter a brave person.
The term hero has been diluted and abused by movie “heroines” who call the most average guy “my hero” because of some simple thing he does for her. Today's dictionaries do define a hero as someone with courage who risks his life. I don't buy it. That was not the definition until recently. In the 1806 edition of the Johnson Dictionary, hero is defined as "A man eminent for bravery." or, "a man of highest class in any respect, as a hero in learning"
There's a difference between signing up in the military and really earning a reputation for bravery. Courage is good. Bravery is better, eminence for bravery is better, heroic is even better. Just as in schools, the feel-good error of easy grading has led to graduating of illiterates, the mislabeling of heroism has affected our language so now, we truly face a dearth of real heroes.
Now don’t get me wrong, a hero can become a hero without fighting a single weapons fight, without killing or wounding anyone. Heroism can be and often is about fighting inner demons. But I get tired of hearing about John McCain being a hero because he survived all those years as a prisoner. I get annoyed when any GI who comes back from Iraq is called a hero. Maybe brave, maybe well intentioned. But I don’t think you should call anyone who volunteers to enter the military in the time of war a hero. That’s because there are real heroes who do go through the whole hero process. And they deserve to be called a name— hero— that is reserved for those who really do pursue the heroic journey. It is not enough to just enlist, follow orders and get through a stint in a hostile territory. It is not enough to survive capture, or live through a fire fight.
The true heroes and heroines among the GIs who have gone to Iraq have spoken out against the war. They have gone in as innocent brave souls, have seen wonders and horrors, made allies, fought and killed enemies, learned the arts of war and perhaps, arts of being a whole person, and they have come through the fire of war with new eyes, new heart and a different kind of courage. Not the courage to heft a powerful weapon. Rather, the courage to face truths that are different than they started with, truths that challenge the ideas about themselves and their world that they first travelled to their destination with.
The true heroes in Iraq have seen other GIs torture prisoners and have, against the “code of silence” reported these despicable acts, putting themselves at risk. This kind of heroism is not reported often. It is hidden, kept from the press, because the whole war in Iraq is based on the opposite of consciousness, the opposite of finding the higher truths
I’m sorry for the families that have lost loved ones to death or injuries that will forever affect their lives. But being wounded does not a hero make.
I routinely ask people who are the living heroes they value and respect. Many people refer to parents, siblings or other family members. Sometimes they seem justified, describing people who have been on real heroic journeys. There are very few famous people mentioned though. Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama….
In these times, we need real heroes, not brave people who get mislabeled as heroes. We need exemplars who set inspiring examples we can look up to. While it is a kindness to call brave soldiers heroes, it is a disservice to our value system, a disservice to our children, who need to learn what it really takes to become a real hero. They see real heroes in some movies. Even Harry Potter, fails the test in his latest movie.
The thing about becoming a hero is that the journey is the reward. When the hero returns to the ordinary world he departed from, with the “holy grail” he successfully acquired to save his world, he has already saved himself and has grown beyond that old world. In movies, the hero often gets a huge reward—a kingdom, the girl, a lot of money, power—but these are not the real coin of the realm for heroes. The true success for the hero or heroineis raised consciousness—knowing who he or she really is, deep inside, and being true to that person.
Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and site architect of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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Heroes: Nature vs. Nurture
Your piece on heroes was truly excellent. I would make two comments, in the spirit of collegial debate. First, you stress the process of growth as being vital to the achievement of heroic status. I tend to agree, although with two caveats. First, before pulling a person from a burning car, a fire fighter may have undergone extensive training and testing that promoted growth; the final act is but a culmination of that prior process. In that sense, the label hero is affixed as a final certification, if you will, of what has come before. Second, by extension, and more controversially, I am reminded of the old expression, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." The latter proposition seems to be argued against by your article: Simply "being in the right place at the right time" does not a hero make; I would agree that it would take growth, either before or after a brave or otherwise noteworthy act, to constitute heroism. The middle proposition, of achieving greatness, is what is argued by your article. In that we agree. But the first proposition, that some are born great, is a subject of much debate. It is all nature and no nurture: in complete contrast to your arguments. But with my background in biology, I know that "phenotype is a product of genotype acted upon by the environment": we are the product of nature as well as nurture. I think at the very least there are some individuals (I'm not speaking of "master races" or anything of the like) who are genetically predisposed to make the most of any given situation (to be more capable of the growth required of a hero); and at the most, there may even be those who come into this world heroic, in the sense that they embody the traits that others aspire to achieve through growth. It is an interesting discussion, to be sure. And an important one, given, as you say, the overuse of the word hero in our culture -- typically either to promote a warrior culture or to assuage it. by Douglas Drenkow (38 articles, 352 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments) on Monday, Nov 28, 2005 at 12:28:26 PM  (0+)
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Heroes are born again.
Thank you so much for the article on heroes, it was a real pleasure to read. While there are many kinds of courage, heroism is of a higher order. A true hero acts spontaneously, from inner essence, and this acting from essence comes only when we are born again. I am not speaking from the view of organized religion when I say born again. You don't have to be a Christian to experience the "new birth", it can happen to any one of us. You described it perfectly, our old self dies away and we become new. The journey has begun. The good news is that every human being has the heart of a hero deep inside that is waiting to be born. Awake, you who are asleep! by Regina Carpenter (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Monday, Nov 28, 2005 at 3:55:25 PM (0+)
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What a hero is.
Dear Rob: The human is a social animal like a bee or an ant and it is not at all unusual for them to offer their own life for the hive, or hill, or in our case, the tribe. In evaluating true human behavior we would do well to examine the hunter gatherer tribe. It is my opinion that we have lived in this social organization for millions of years, and the measly ten thousand years that encompasses civilization is a drop in the bucket. It is not unusual for a soldier to fall on a grenade to save his buddies but an Indian chief with the most feathers in his bonnet got each feather as a result of a daring exploit. When a tribe recognizes an individual for a life of service he could properly be called a chief--or a hero. He or she like Cindy Sheehan have gone even further than one exploit and can be counted on to continue. There has been talk of a female president coming out of the next presidential election and Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice are expected to be the contestants. I advise the progressive community to immediatly place Cindy in the running and make it a three way race. Cindy's heroism, or heroinism is beyond question. by gramps (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 107 comments) on Monday, Nov 28, 2005 at 9:33:57 PM (0+)
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A hero is someone not exceptional
A hero is someone who doesn't want to be a hero and does the right thing. He or she refutes the idea of heroism and strives to make a bad situation a better one. There is nothing magical about being a hero, being there at the right time. Its as if we expect and search for heroism in order to claim some social purple heart. It is not...For example George Bush would have been a hero to me if he decided not to wage war in the middle east. That was the easy thing to do. But he waged War. He made a bad situation worse. Instead of 3,000 dead Americans we now have over 5,000 dead Americans.He stands before the American Body expecting to be called a hero of our time, and those sounds have crashed before his surrealism. A hero is any ordinary American who refuses to fight war, who refuses to tremble in the face of terror, who refuses to strike back at his lasher. A hero is a person who has decided to search for truth without protection, and knows that refuting heroism brings him solace. by Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 930 comments) on Tuesday, Nov 29, 2005 at 5:38:43 PM (0+)
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