A Time For Heroes

Hello, it’s me again. Isn’t it amazing how our plans so often fall through? I had planned on writing an article about the debacle in Kosovo, then the latest government faux pas concerning possible Internet taxation. Let’s face it, there’s a lot to write about these days.

However, due to real life, I never got those stories finished.

I have something with a more philosophical bent to it, something more cerebral for us to think about.

The human condition as we know it today is, in the vast majority, schizophrenic at best. We have, on this planet, a multitude of sub-societies each trying to persuade the other sub-societies by whatever means possible (usually war) that “their way” is superior, whatever that may be. In most of these cases, these sub-societies each fervently believe that they have the moral high ground when it comes to pushing their agenda over another. The Christians think anybody who doesn’t believe as they do is going to their Hell, the Muslims believe that any who don’t think as they do is an infidel, capitalists think that the communists are a repressive, backwards societal organism, while the communists think that the capitalists abuse the common man for the enrichment of the wealthy class. These are only a few of thousands of examples. There are even sub-examples to these: the Protestants hate the Catholics, the Sunni Muslims hate the Shiite, and old money hates new money.

The thing to try and consider is that each of these groups (and most of the multitude of others) fully believe themselves to be morally correct. Well, in the world of simple mathematics, this couldn’t possibly be true, but in the world of belief, well, let’s pretend that perhaps all of these belief systems, for their various purposes, contain at least a grain of truth to them.

This would make things somewhat difficult to sort out, but we do know that it’s the common man who works the long hours for little money yet makes the owner of the company wealthy; so in this case the communists are correct. We also know that because the communists attempt to not place a premium value on any one service or industry or another that all of their industries are mediocre as a result; so in this case the capitalists are correct. The list goes on, whether economics, religion or whatever.

Now imagine that there is some principle or belief that all of these otherwise vastly divergent groups of people (many overlap into multiple areas, of course) could all believe in. Something that could improve ALL OF US.

Thus, I bring the concept of heroism. Not of mundane, simple facades of heroes like athletes and movie stars, not even those quiet heroes such as firemen, policemen, soldiers and teachers, but true, larger than life HEROES. People like Joan of Arc, William Wallace, Mother Teresa. These are people who by their acts, they made a true change in the condition of living for thousands, even millions of people.

Since the beginning of time, humanity has worshipped its heroes. No matter what society, time period or location, heroes have a prominent place in history. Also, no matter what era, all of these heroes, the truly great ones, have a common thread running through them that links them all together. We see decency, courage, nobility, self-sacrifice, modesty, and honesty. How many of you have ever seen a true hero who was an arrogant liar? There are none.

Heroes embody all the things in mankind which separate us from the other animals, and despite having to overcome the majority of the hurdles we have in front of us, most of which we’ve placed there ourselves, we constantly strive to become more than what we are. All societies and sub-cultures care deeply for their children. All of these same societies and sub-cultures care for the idea of order over chaos. ALL people care for these things and the other basic fundamental things that make us human.

Our heroes are our reminders to us of what we can achieve, that we can overcome our fears. Our heroes are our focal points, showing us that even in the darkest times we can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, create order out of chaos, and move forward in our evolution. As a species, our heroes are all that we hope to become, every one of us. Our heroes give us our next rung to strive for, our next accomplishment to match, while being as imperfect and mortal as ourselves. Our heroes are all that we would like to become, all that is good and decent within us.

A sad but amazing thing, but today we have no true, epic heroes. Yes, we have people who’ve done much for their fellow man, but we have no one today who has transcended their own humanity. Today, there are no heroes.

Across the many barriers we’ve created in our diverse cultures and societies, we have no true heroes left. If we did, we’d have heard about it. An amazing thing is that from an unlikely source, we have given ourselves an outlet to fulfill our need for heroes. Both Hollywood and the many authors of novels give us the heroes we need so badly. Movies like “Armageddon” and “Independence Day” give us all a sense of humanity coming together and at least for a time ridding ourselves of the many petty hatreds, jealousies, and differences which drive us apart as a species. At least for as long as we’re in the movie theaters. For that time though, we see characters not really unlike ourselves who rise above the adversity in their stories to achieve things that we all wish we could do. After all, who doesn’t wish they could save the world?

I’ll be the first to put up that Hollywood does what it does to make money; philanthropy is not their reason for existence. But it seems that the biggest grossing movies are the ones about heroic struggles against impossible odds. Why is this? Well, pretty simple: Hollywood marketing people aren’t stupid. They’ll make the movies we most want to see, and what we want to see is stuff that is heroic.

One of the many faults we humans have (uncountable as they are) is our own pettiness and desire to be “right”. Only in certain moments in every day life do we see past our own little worlds. This is a universal failing for us all. Never before have people everywhere been so apathetic about the state of their own societies. Only every once in a while do we have people rise from the muck to do something truly great which transforms us all into wanting to become just a little bit more than we are. I haven’t seen many in my lifetime.

I say we need heroes, today, and we need them now. Heroes can be the catalyst which may move our otherwise apathetic world population to make changes for the better. The most powerful man on earth is a lying, hypocritical, lech, so he’s out. Religious leaders in America are, by and large, money-grubbing televangelists, so they’re out too. I don’t see ANY potential heroes on the horizon today, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. If you take a look back at history, most of the truly great, legendary heroes of our past started out being no different than anyone else, but either created their own luck and stood firm where others failed, or just happened to make the right choice at the right time and stood by it. This is something any of us can do, if given the chance. And I say it’s about time.

END

-Eric

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