The Death Of The Hero

I am going to try today to express a sadness in my soul without allowing my anger and penchant for malevolent wit and cutting jibs to take over. To be honest, this is something that has poked at my value system for some time, and I'm going to attempt to articulate it in such a way that you see - beyond a shadow of a doubt - that I'm right. It's part philosophy, part history, part modern society, part literary fiction, and all very unfortunately true.

The concept of a Hero has been killed.

I'm not really sure when it happened, to be honest. I've never studied the overall linguistic history of culture. It's just something I've seen in our culture that has become twisted and maimed and raped and murdered. The Hero doesn't exist anymore as such, but instead has become a tagline for people who endure something considered "out of the ordinary".

Heroism is now a cliche, and when something becomes a cliche, the real thing is no longer noticed. I'd like to say, for the record, I am not putting myself in this light; I am not a Hero. But I've known a few, at least, to my way of thinking. Shall we investigate this phenomenon?

Let us dissect what constitutes a Hero. Looking at criteria based on history and literary fiction, one would find the qualities of a Hero to be: loyalty, morality, selflessness, a discriminate willfulness to use lethal force, courage, bravery, intelligence - for when have you ever studied or read about a dumb Hero - cunning, devotion, camaraderie, truthfulness, honesty, a concept of - but not strict adherence to - duty, and a willingness to sacrifice oneself for the greater good, even if that greater good is misconstrued and is, in fact, a personal sacrifice.

The thing that really strips the concept of Heroism and the Hero of any real legitimacy in today's society is how those things are now attributed to people who in no way deserve them.

All one has to do is watch any news channel for longer than 20 minutes and one will see the abject perversion of the concept of a Hero. Henceforth, I shall give a number of examples of modern "heroism" and relegate them to their proper places. I intend to once and for all lay to rest any concept that doesn't adhere to the true concept of Heroism.

Please note, however, these are generalizations, and I may touch on points with which you might raise a point or two which I would gladly concede. I'm not intending to be offensive, I am merely going with the percentages.

Firstly, it's been said about people who die in a horrible fashion, usually unknowingly, and definitively tragically, that they are heroes. Two examples that come to mind are terminally ill people and the unfortunate people who were killed during the September 11th attacks (with one exception on the latter).

We've all heard it said that people who fight cancer to the very end (of their lives) are considered "heroic", and I will contend that the citizens of our country who downed their plane in Pennsylvania are Heroes, whereas the others were not, and I shall explain in simple terms.

These people are victims, not Heroes. Do not think me of being callous, I am not demeaning the tragedy involved in both situations. But let us not mince words. They are victims, one and all. That is not to say that a cancer patient doesn't view the finality of it all with a somewhat Heroic mindset, but ultimately that person is no Hero. Just a victim of an unfortunate disease.

In the case of people who die in accidents in any way similar to the 9/11 attacks, when a group of Israelis is wiped out by some Hamas fanatic, do we call those people Heroes? No, we call them dead, and we add a number so we know how many. In truth, if good comes of their deaths, they still are not Heroes, because their deaths started the change, they did not actively enable it; if they hadn't died, nothing would have changed.

The second group of people who typically are not - though are more than likely to be Heroes - are people bound by duty and duty alone. Our Officers of the Law and our Military men and women - may they be brought home soon - are bound to a duty, a duty that they undertook knowing the risks to themselves involved. Granted, one would consider this grounds for immediate Heroism tagging, but this is not the case.

Why?

Because they have "orders", and "quotas", and things of that nature to create an environment that ultimately runs like clockwork, and neither aspects of their real world lives - chasing criminals or fighting a war - run like clockwork.

Just because a cop gets killed in the line of duty does not make him Heroic. If he did it defending a citizen from harm, literally jumping in front of an armed gunman to protect someone - then yes, I'll concede he is a probably a Hero.

Moreover, a soldier is placed in a warzone and made to kill at the behest of his superiors. Sadly, in modern times, this means military use is strictly for political and financial game and gain, and thus disqualifies it on the basis of indiscriminate killing.

Again, don't get me wrong, I respect our soldiers, their sense of duty, their bravery, courage, and their willingness to throw their lives at our 'enemies', but this does not make them Heroes. It means they are doing their job, the one they chose, knowingly.

Typically, a warzone allows for more Heroic individuals to emerge, but that is what war does - it makes Heroes. Sadly, those who are Heroes in said environment don't always get labeled as such by the people who use the word so loosely, because the guy who saves a few fellow squadmates from certain doom isn't necessarily as good a story to air as the one about a guy who lost a few limbs, but since he got replacements and jogs a mile a day he's a Hero.

I could list dozens and dozens of Heroes from the realm of both fiction and history, but I won't. You know I'm right; you can think of - for yourself - embodiments of Heroism that truly fit the mold.

However, there is one Hero I knew well. My father was a Hero. It's a story for another time, but I watched him save a man's life. Not out of any sense of duty. Certainly not out of any fear for his own survival.

He accomplished what had to be done.

Because it was the right thing to do.