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

As many of you know, I have a lot of years of connectivity to the Canadian military. I have known a few who died in the line of duty. But were they heroes?

Voluntarily joining such outfits - with a clear understanding of the risks - is a measure of bravery. Performing common assigned duties is part of the job. Even if it brings the ultimate sacrifice.

Those who boldly stand or charge into a fray to protect their associates, they are heroes.

Just as is every police officer, fire-fighter or EMS person that jumps into a dangerous situation. Even those teachers that put themselves between nutters and the kids. These are heroes.

But in my opinion, to a degree, so are the common folks that put the needs of the poor, the weak, and members of the community above their own needs.

How do YOU define a hero?

"'Even' those teachers..." suggests you don't think much of teachers until their lives are threatened. I tend to see anyone who gets in front of a classroom full of kids and imparts knowledge and understanding everyday for 30 or 40 years and never gets any thanks or respect but goes on doing it because they believe that those kids have a right to that opportunity is at least a bit heroic.

I agree with both of you.

Parents who put up with brooding, temperamental teenagers are a bit heroic, as well. Later, when the teenagers grow up to have teenagers of their own, they will see things from the other side .

For some of us, it takes a lot of courage to admit having made mistakes.

'Teenage' is a category that seems to be expanding - my previous post would've been longer but my daughter (age 24) demanded I drive her to the train station otherwise she would be late for work (because she'd overslept).
It definitely gives you a different perspective on how your own parents felt - I look at my daughter and think how did my parents put up with me...

Someone who performs a selfless act for the benefit of someone that they don't really have an emotional connection.

If I throw myself in front of a moving vehicle to save the life of my daughter that's not heroic. She's my daughter and I'd willingly take that sort of risk.

If someone we don't know does it, THAT'S heroic.

Heroic and brave aren't the same thing. Heroic and compassionate aren't the same thing. Being idolised isn't the same as being a hero.

If I climb into the ring with a professional boxer, I'm brave (and quite possibly stupid) but not heroic.

Heroic / hero is a hugely overused term.

PP.

" Being idolised isn't the same as being a hero." [Pink Paisley]

I totally agree.

Modern use of 'hero' does grate with me. I'd prefer to reserve it for acts in the spirit of the great classical heroes - Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus, etc - they who through their own bravery overcame almost insurmountable odds to do what was right. There are very few in the modern era or indeed the non-fictional world who can match the heroes of legend (although Ernest Shackleton would possibly be a candidate).

The superheroes of fiction miss the point. It's not about superpowers.

I wouldn't know about superpowers, never having had any.

I know how to get healthy plants by putting them in the sun and good soil, and keeping them hydrated. That's not a superpower, just an old practice that goes back at least 5,000 years.

D we yearn for superpowers because we feel so vulnerable? Is there something about the modern world that exacerbates our vulnerability?

Might it be the advance of technology? Our bodies and minds have pretty much the same capacity as those of our ancestors hundreds of generations back. Meanwhile, advertisers push products that make life "easier" for us, which might be an insult -- as if we were getting capable of doing less and less.

Advertising grates with individual free-thinkers like you and me because it seeks to address us as a demographic. It assumes I want to binge-watch some dull, interminable crime series on Amazon Prime, for example.

We should celebrate that we are the outliers. It's almost heroic, beating back the relentless tide of commercialism.

I do celebrate that, Icy. Long life to us.

A lot of heroic acts are fostered by fury or simple lost temper.

Grace under pressure counts for something, though.

Plus, bravery despite fear is kind of hard to pull off. I give extra points to those who can overcome their terror.

Interesting, a lot of sources equate bravery & heroism.
My feeling is that heroes are undertaking a 'noble' cause at some considerable physical or mental effort. That's perhaps dating from historical sagas.
Bravery is doing something you fear, or don't want to do, for the benefit of someone else.
I think brave is an over used word, certainly in newspaper articles.

The pressures involved in working as a journalist are pretty daunting. I suspect that they push some people over the edge.

Would a thin line between bravery and heroism be:

One leaps into a situation, knowing what the risks and chances of survival are, versus

One who leaps into a situation without thought of the risk - just the goal of saving someone or something.

Conscious effort versus reactive ?

I like that analysis.

It’s an interesting distinction, which helps differentiate the modern usages.

Another difference is that the hero has to achieve something. The brave often perished in trying.

Even if the achievement results in the hero's death?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnnHprUGKF0

I have always liked that tune.

But more in the modern world, there will be the person that just goes into flood waters to try to save . . . and all perish anyway.

I would still count the one who tried and lost as a hero.