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Should we make heroes of people when everyone is

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  • flawed? I, as a historian, am frequently asked who is your hero? I don't have heroe's but out of a combimnation of politeness and for the sake of conversation I tend to give an answer. So, in the past, I have given answers such as Maximilien Robespierre and John Wilkes Booth. I can hear you groan. One after all, was responsible for inaugarating the terror, the other was an assassin. But at the time I thought I could justify my choice. The one defended the principles of the French Revolution and changed the course of European history for the better. The other avenged his people and the ruination of his country in the only way available to him. Both are, perhaps justifiably, demonised. But Michael Collins is considered an heroic figure when he was leader of the I.R.A and committed murder. Nelson Mandela is universally aclaimed when he was head of the military wing of the ANC and all that that meant, and who was it after all, who relinquished power in South Africa? It was F.W De Klerk. So what is a hero, who is yours and why? OK no one will reply to this thread but I enjoyed writing it.
    Porscha
      December 21, 2007 11:42 PM GMT
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  • I guess I have a different perspective on what a hero is. I don't think true heroes make the history books. Heroes are those samaritans that step up to the plate at the most unexpected times. Like people who pull over at a scene of an accident or run into a burning house to save a life. You can admire other's but call them heroes, I don't think so.
    Marsha
      December 22, 2007 12:00 AM GMT
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  • You find out a great deal about yourself when you are put on the spot. I have never saved a life but when I think back there have been occassions when I have acted with courage and dignity but there have been other times when I couldn't run away fast enough. But it that unsung heroism as you say, that willingness to stay and comfort a stranger at the scene of an accident or help someone away from a collapsing building. It won't find you a niche in history but it has the element of courage and self-sacrifice that constitutes an heroic act. Quite often we react to situations rather than articulate them. But does society need heroes? People we can relate to and admire. Or are they imposed upon us. In a celebrity obssessed culture where recognition and admiration is so desperately sought merely for the sake of it, it is an interesting question. I remember someone once told me they thought the movie Schindler's List was boring. Yet here was the ultimate flawed hero, a member of the Nazi Party, a man willing to exploit slave labour for his own benefit, a drunk, a philanderer. But in the end, for whatever reason, he was willing to risk his own life to save the live's of others. How is it possible to find that dull, just as a character study if nothing else. No, it was a long time ago, who cares!
    Porscha
      December 22, 2007 8:33 AM GMT
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  • Porscha it is strange how you brought this hero thread up at this time. Only two days ago I was talking to a customer about snow and how when a friend and I were driving up to the mountains at 5.a.m. on a New Years day to go skiing we came across a young man frantically waving on the side of the road. I was only 17 at the time as was my friend. There had been a bad accident, a car with three young people went off the road, flipped and slid down a bank into a water filled ditch. Apparently after several hours one of the brothers was able to pull himself out of the car and made it up to the road we were traveling. This was pre-cellphone days and all we had was a CB radio. My friend and I took turns calling for help and holding the trapped brother's head up out of the water so he would not drown. Sadly there was a girl in the vehicle we could not get to. In ways it seemed like it took forever but eventually we were able to get help. We stayed while the emergency crews pulled the one brother and the gal's body from the vehicle. When the ambulances left we continued our trip to the mountains.

    I havn't talked about this incident in decades, how appropriate with the anniversary only a week away. I wonder what those brothers are doing today and if New Years day has special meaning to them. Maybe because of not being able to save the gal, neither my friend nor I has talked much about the incident. There were no choices, we had to help, that's the kind of people my friend and I are. The young man that waved us down had said several vehicles drove by and did not stop. I suppose to those brothers my friend and I are heroes. I hadn't really given the idea much thought.
      December 22, 2007 11:09 AM GMT
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  • I don't think there are 'heroes' at all, just everyday people who do the right thing at the right time and make a real difference in someone's life.

    Of course, there are many people I admire for various reasons, their drive, their talent, their impact etc but hero worship? No, not for me.

    Nikki
    Every woman is beautiful, some show it with their faces, others show it with their hearts.
      December 22, 2007 6:43 PM GMT
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  • Dont have any Hero's Porscha, there are people i admire because or there paticular talent, i think we are all hero's as such for the everyday struggle we have to get through, i wonder how many of the so called Hero's would be able to cope with Tg

    Hugs
    Sammi x
      December 22, 2007 7:37 PM GMT
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  • 1195
    Porscha - unfortunately, we would have to clarify the term"hero." If it means someone who has lead an exemplary life and performed heroic tasks - I'd say we're talking about mythical characters. Superman, Bat Man, Hercules and Flash Gordon and those guys were never my heros.
    Now if it's a single act or effort to change something bad and deadly - then I'd say that there are many more heros we never hear or read about. To further Nikki's statement that everybody can be a hero. I'd say that we all get choices to act or intervene but I don't thinks I'd consider myself a hero.
    lol
    Gracie
    <p>If it isn't fun - don't do it.</p>
      December 22, 2007 10:01 PM GMT
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  • nice thread this. in my opinion, when one refers to a hero, it is the act of heroism that should be dwelled upon. afterall, anyone from any walk of life is capable of acts of heroism, and it is these acts that we should all aspire to. if you ask anyone who has performed such acts they will say "i only did what i had to." i will always commend people for acts of heroism but i will never dote on any individual. afterall, if the queen wasnt the queen, someone else would be, if neil armstrong wasnt first man on the moon someone else would have been, if jesus wasnt son of god someone else would have been... the list is endless. no one person is more special than anyone else just because their lifes situations are different. just my opinion lol
    Just an ordinary girl finding her way in this strange life. - What will it take to get everyone to realise that everyone else is also a human being that deserves just as much respect? - How does someone tell their doctor they have hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia? - When I was a student I specialised in Alcopology. It always starts with Alco and always ends with pology. - Waiter! There's a hare in my rabbit pie!
      December 23, 2007 4:10 PM GMT
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  • I agree there is probably no such thing as a hero, but there is the heroic deed. Many of us here have behaved heroically in facing up to and acknowledging who we are despite of hostility and indeed the heartache it can bring. To have heroes is foolish. They can never live up to the standard you have set for them. And how do you deal with this? You either remain in denial about the worse aspects of their character, make vain attempts to justify them, or simply lie on their behalf. You don't diminish another by being honest, people only diminish themselves. Anyfer, is right when she says people often don't know why they behaved the way they did, it was just the right thing to do. Marsha and her friend may well have deliberated about what to do but I'm sure they never thought twice that they had to do something - it was the right thing to do. That is something you shouldn't have to think about. But as she points out others drove straight past.

    I will clarify what I mean by a hero. I have in mind the hero as icon, as he or she lives in popular culture and the public consciousness. As the figureheads of our society. Those people whose achievements, convictions, physical and moral courage we are expected to aspire to. Those people whom modern day politicians like to associate themselves with. After all, we are brought up on heroes from the Greek Myths and the stories of the Bible, to war heroes and space exploration. In Britain we have King Arthur, Alfred the Great, Good Queen Bess, even Winston Churchill, and many many others.

    I will tell you who I have always admired, and this certainly isn't unique to me, my father and mother. For simply doing what so many other decent people do, and raise a large family on a low income. That takes a great deal of courage and hard work, and the sacrifices they made for us is something I cannot imagine me doing. I hardly saw my father when I was growing up and never really got to know him that well. I wasn't an easy child to understand and he died when I was young. As I say that's not a story unique to me but is common to many. It is worth remembering that courage and heroism often simply means facing up to your responsibilities. I was raised with a strict moral code which I openly admit to not always living up to, though I do have a friend who is always telling me not to be so damned puritanical, which I think is a little unfair. Now I'm going to admit to a vice - I really like John Wayne westerns. Not for their, or his politics, which are the polar opposite of mine. But for the moral code they espouse which I think should cross all political barriers.

    Going off at a bit of a tangent here but as I was talking about my father this is an interesting dilemma I have often thought about. I have always strongly opposed the dropping off the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I oppose this as both immoral and unneccessary. The main reason often quoted for their use was the countless allied lives that would have been lost in any invasion of mainland Japan. My father was a marine commando in the last war and had been assigned to go to the far east and was at the time training for the invasion of Japan. I can't help but wonder, if those bombs hadn't been dropped, would I be here now.
    Porscha
      December 23, 2007 8:08 PM GMT
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