h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Day in and day out, news agencies cover events and start slinging the word "hero" left and right, as if trying to see who it sticks to. Then they interview these "heroes," and they look embarassed to be there. Rightly so.

Are we so desperate for someone to look up to? Do the media really think we're that stupid?

A prime example: firefighters. They're people with training and experience in the behavior of fires and flammable materials, and the attendant dangers to life and property. They're properly protected in advance and they know what they're doing. Once in a great while one might go above and beyond the call of duty (the very definition of heroism), but mostly they take calculated risks based on an understanding of their job.

Such acts aren't any more heroic than a system administrator restoring a hosed system from backup.

The 9/11 firefighters and emergency personnel had no idea that the buildings could come down. Nobody thought they might. Had they known, their deaths might be considered heroic acts of self-sacrifice. But they didn't, which makes their loss only tragic.

And that lady POW who was rescued by the special forces team... a maintenance crew member ambushed while bringing up the rear, taken to a hospital and treated decently, and swiped from that hospital through some stupid circumstances does not a hero make. She survived a somewhat scary situation, but she did NOTHING to distinguish herself as a hero. She was just along for the ride, as forces beyond her control acted upon her.

Had she tunneled her way out to freedom with a broken leg and under threat of death, to deliver key intelligence to the front, things might have been different.