Devaluation of the word 'heroes'

[C_Felix]

To be fair, if you feverently reject the title of "hero" for your self, it's probably a good indicator that you might be a hero.

I consider "heroism" to be something of a sliding scale. I consider certain people to be more "heroic" than your average by virtue of their choice of career. These are those who do often difficult and dangerous work, often poorly paid by comparison with other job options, that society as a whole benefits from. This would include emergency personnel and military.

However, well beyond that base level of heroism are the individual acts of courage and selflessness which such people from time to time perform.

For example, the other night in Christchurch an NZ firefighter crawled deep into the debris of an extremely unstable collapsed building to locate a survivor and pull them to safety. That man is a hero for being a fireman, but the heroism of that specific act is of several magnitudes greater.

It seems that is all that is required to be a hero.

(I might get flack for this) But, those astronauts who died in Challenger and Columbia, aren't really heroes either.

 

[Beerina]

It seems that is all that is required to be a hero.

(I might get flack for this) But, those astronauts who died in Challenger and Columbia, aren't really heroes either.

Just how much courage and life-risking should be done in order to be considered such?

 

[TragicMonkey]

Just how much courage and life-risking should be done in order to be considered such?

Again, is the definition of "hero" simply anyone who does something dangerous, or possesses courage to a specific degree? Nobody says that these people weren't admirable, but are they necessarily heroes? It's not an insult to be sparse with the label "hero", any more than it's suggesting a death isn't sad because you don't consider it "a tragedy".

 

[Bikewer]

I think in terms of someone who is willing to place their own life in danger in order to aid someone else. Pretty simple.

 

[ZirconBlue]

Again, is the definition of "hero" simply anyone who does something dangerous, or possesses courage to a specific degree? Nobody says that these people weren't admirable, but are they necessarily heroes? It's not an insult to be sparse with the label "hero", any more than it's suggesting a death isn't sad because you don't consider it "a tragedy".

Agreed. Taking risks can be "heroic" in some circumstances and "stupid" in others.

 

[TragicMonkey]

I think in terms of someone who is willing to place their own life in danger in order to aid someone else. Pretty simple.

In which case everyone in the military, police, fire services are automatically heroes, whether they get the opportunity to place their life in danger to aid someone else or not, because the potential is there.

 

[alfaniner]

I remember a sub shop ad from around the 80s, touting a local pugilist as a "boxing hero". I never really equated the two terms, but they were using it to push their new hero sandwiches.

 

[commandlinegamer]

Hero:

Someone who places their own life in danger in order to aid someone else.

Just needed a little fixing.

 

[TragicMonkey]

So it has to be a fatal risk to one's life? So, a man who does nothing eventful his entire life but on one occasion dives into a pond to rescue a drowing lady from sharks is a hero, but a doctor who spends forty years in a Third-World nation treating the impoverished inhabitants while living in squalor is not a hero?

 

[BobTheCoward]

I remember a sub shop ad from around the 80s, touting a local pugilist as a "boxing hero". I never really equated the two terms, but they were using it to push their new hero sandwiches.

In a sense, I could almost see sports being closer to the heroes of tradition than most other professions. It was Hercules and Theseus who invented pankration.

 

[gumboot]

My only personal view is that a hero is someone who faces great danger or adversity out of selfless motivation, for the benefit of others. They're a role model; a person who we would desire to emulate.

So yes, a doctor spending their life in 3rd world countries would indeed be a hero. Not only are they facing constant adversity every day, but as we know many 3rd world countries are quite a lot more dangerous than the comforts of a doctor's surgery in our own cities and towns.

I think there is a scale to heroism. A person can be a hero, while acknowledging that others are "more" heroic.

 

[MontagK505]

Just how much courage and life-risking should be done in order to be considered such?

I think part of it is when you have the opportunity to cut and run and you're scared poopless but, you do what's necessary anyway.

Were the pilots on flight 1549 heroes? Well, I certainly admire their competence. Sullenberger didn't seem to think he was a hero. He and his co-pilot did what they were trained to do. And of course they were saving their own skin as well as the passengers. I guess the heroic part is keeping your own fear at bay while you focus on doing the right thing.

 

[Seismosaurus]

A few years ago in the UK a football player got a cut on his head during a game. He put a sweatband on and kept playing with blood trickling down his face.

One of the commentators announced that this was an act of heroism comparable to anything seen in World War II.

Thankfully it actually caused an outcry and the commentator admitted he had gotten rather caught up in the moment!

ETA : To me, a gentleman by the name of Lachhiman Gurung is practically the definition of a hero. Here's what he did :

At the end of April 1945, the 89th Indian Brigade of 7th Division was ordered to cross the Irrawaddy and destroy the enemy north of the Prome-Taungup road. By May 9 the Japanese, after a series of desperate attacks, had broken off contact and were withdrawing towards the Taungdaw Valley. “B” and “C” companies of the 4th/8th Gurkha Rifles were positioned to block their route at the village of Taungdaw, on the west bank of the river.

When the Japanese arrived, the two Gurkha companies were surrounded and their lines of communication cut. On the night of May 12, Rifleman Gurung was manning the forward post of his platoon almost 100 yards ahead of the main company.

At 1.20am, more than 200 Japanese attacked the company position. The brunt of the assault fell on Gurung’s section and, in particular, on his post, which dominated a jungle track leading up to his platoon’s position. Had the enemy been able to overrun it and occupy Gurung’s trench, they would have secured control over the whole of the field before them.

One grenade fell on the lip of Gurung’s trench. He quickly grabbed it and hurled it back at the enemy. Almost immediately another grenade came over. This one fell directly inside the trench. Again Gurung snatched it up and threw it back.

A third grenade landed just in front of the trench. Gurung attempted to throw it back, but it exploded in his hand, blowing off his fingers, shattering his right arm and severely wounding him in the face, body and right leg. His two comrades were also badly wounded and lay helpless in the bottom of the trench.

The enemy, screaming and yelling, now formed up shoulder to shoulder and attempted to rush the position by sheer weight of numbers. Gurung, regardless of his wounds, loaded and fired his rifle with his left hand and kept up a steady rate of fire.

The attacks came in wave after wave, but the Japanese were beaten back with heavy losses. For four hours Gurung remained alone at his post, calmly waiting for each new onslaught, firing into his attackers at point blank range, determined not to yield an inch of ground. His comrades could hear him shouting: “Come and fight a Gurkha!”

The following morning, of the 87 enemy dead found in the company’s immediate locality, 31 lay in front of Gurung’s section. The Japanese made repeated attempts to break through, but the 4th/8th held out until May 15, when they were relieved.

Gurung later said: “I had to fight because there was no other way. I felt I was going to die anyway, so I might as well die standing on my feet. All I knew was that I had to go on and hold them back. I am glad that helped the other soldiers in my platoon, but they would have all done the same thing.”

Gurung was invested with the Victoria Cross by Lord Louis Mountbatten at a parade at the Red Fort in Delhi on December 19 1945. The citation declared: “This Rifleman, by his magnificent example, so inspired his comrades to resist the enemy to the last that, although surrounded and cut off for three days and two nights, they held and smashed every attack. His outstanding gallantry and extreme devotion to duty, in the face of almost overwhelming odds, were the main factors in the defeat of the enemy.” Partiman Gurung, Lachhiman’s father, then aged about 74, was carried for 11 days from his village in Nepal to witness his son being decorated.

 

[gumboot]

ETA : To me, a gentleman by the name of Lachhiman Gurung is practically the definition of a hero. Here's what he did :

That would do it. Thanks for sharing that story.

 

[C_Felix]

Again, is the definition of "hero" simply anyone who does something dangerous, or possesses courage to a specific degree? Nobody says that these people weren't admirable, but are they necessarily heroes? It's not an insult to be sparse with the label "hero", any more than it's suggesting a death isn't sad because you don't consider it "a tragedy".

I think you're hinting at somethng here, which is related to my Challenger and Columbia post.

Dying in a tragic and/or shocking manner doesn't make you a hero.

 

[PhantomWolf]

I think you're hinting at somethng here, which is related to my Challenger and Columbia post.

Dying in a tragic and/or shocking manner doesn't make you a hero.

I think that all Astronauts fit into the heroic work category. Strapping yourself into a flying bomb and waiting for it to hurl you into a vacuum takes guts.

 

[MontagK505]

I think that all Astronauts fit into the heroic work category. Strapping yourself into a flying bomb and waiting for it to hurl you into a vacuum takes guts.

Especially when you are reminded that the "flying bomb" was built by the cheapest bidder.

For a astronaut or test pilot, Sometimes being brave isn't about facing the danger you are in, but about greater dangers for the teammates you work with.

Michael Collins writes about this in his autobiography: "Carrying the Fire". He stated the worst aspect of the Apollo 11 mission was his fear that Armstrong & Aldrin wouldn't make it back. He spent a good deal of his training alone in the command module because the mission planning included the possibility he might have to fly the TEI portion by himself.

 

[WildCat]

Thank you for pointing this out C_Felix, you're a real hero!

 

[C_Felix]

Thank you for pointing this out C_Felix, you're a real hero!

 

[Cayvmann]

It seems that is all that is required to be a hero.

(I might get flack for this) But, those astronauts who died in Challenger and Columbia, aren't really heroes either.

You'll get no flack from me. Thrill and glory seeking behaviour is not heroic. Just having a dangerous job doesn't make you heroic, either. By the definition I use, you have to put yourself in danger, trying to actually help someone else, to be a hero. I don't think astronauts automatically get this tag.