Casull
Sr. Member
Re: Steve Fosset's Vanishing Act
Real, I'm just not sure how to take your response. Nowhere did I say that to be a hero someone has to be a professional anything. All of your examples have one thing in common; in each case, the individual act involves risk of serious injury or death and involves the attempt to help or save another. Clearly, that is the definition of a hero. Who exactly was Fosset attempting to help or save by flying his balloon around the world? I just chose the 9-11 example, because my brother-in-law was equating victim status with heroism. Clearly someone running from a burning building is doing nothing cowardly, but just as clearly, it involves no heroism. By the same token, those firefighters running into the buildings were clearly putting their lives at risk to aid others, and that is the very definition of heroism, regardless of whether or not it was their job or profession. I guess I simply can't see where an adrenalin junky going after fame and records is a hero. If you believe that, then I guess I must have a higher standard for heroism.
HI CASUL: Based upon this, then no-one but an amatuer is a hero since the others are "just doing a job that they are paid for", including the firemen of 9/11 and the Military..
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. How should we consider someone who surprises everyone with his or her heroism? What about the person who is expected to behave In a particular way? Is the heroic act quite separate from the person who performs it?
What about the 'ordinary' mother who, without thinking, rushes back to a smoky, flame-engulfed apartment in an attempt to save her helpless child from a hideous death? Is being labeled a hero sometimes simply a matter of surrendering to impulse? What about the otherwise innocuous whistle blower who may go so far as to draw the wrath of authority to protect more vulnerable comrades? We may remember Karen Silkwood, who worked in a nuclear plant where fuel rods used in nuclear fission reactors were made. Already fatally affected by chemical poisoning, Silkwood died in mysterious circumstances after she had spent several months gathering evidence of plutonium contamination throughout the plant. As she acted over an extended period, this may have been 'deliberate' heroism, and yet what had the dying Silkwood to lose? How important is the idea of sacrifice when identifying heroism? But could some people in these same circumstances be seen to be 'merely doing their duty" when they react as did our heroic figures above? Aren't firemen, for instance, supposed to rush into burning buildings? Shouldn't a chaplain in a concentration camp automatically sacrifice himself to save his fellow man?
Real, I'm just not sure how to take your response. Nowhere did I say that to be a hero someone has to be a professional anything. All of your examples have one thing in common; in each case, the individual act involves risk of serious injury or death and involves the attempt to help or save another. Clearly, that is the definition of a hero. Who exactly was Fosset attempting to help or save by flying his balloon around the world? I just chose the 9-11 example, because my brother-in-law was equating victim status with heroism. Clearly someone running from a burning building is doing nothing cowardly, but just as clearly, it involves no heroism. By the same token, those firefighters running into the buildings were clearly putting their lives at risk to aid others, and that is the very definition of heroism, regardless of whether or not it was their job or profession. I guess I simply can't see where an adrenalin junky going after fame and records is a hero. If you believe that, then I guess I must have a higher standard for heroism.