What Is Your Idea Of A Hero

[Pangloss]

I'ts about opportunity isn't. What makes you think that most people that are willing to work a 100 hour week for their family wouldn't jump into a freezing river to save someone.

What makes you think I ever said anything remotely like that?

In fact, someone who understands the needs of others, and responsibility and the delaying of gratification is just the kind of person who just might risk themselves for others.

Reading other people's posts is better than reading into them.

Pangloss

 

[Pangloss]

Who decides what is right.

s243a - that is a baiting question.

In the context of this thread, "rightness" could easily come to mean the promotion of what is commonly considered good, also perhaps the prevention of harm.

But please let's avoid doing just what you're doing, asking silly technical questions that result in the thread being jacked into semantic silliness.

Pangloss

 

[Pangloss]

I would consider Terry Fox one of the greatest heros of our time.

No Colour:

He was a athlete. He was brave. He was generous. He was articulate. He was handsome. He was tough.

How does heroic come into it?

Pangloss

Postscript: If you are Canadian, you might adopt Canadian spelling for your screen name.
-p

 

[Zzarchov]

I would say he was heroic, he gave something up that was irreplacable.

He knew he had about a year left. Rather than use his final hours partying, making amends with friends and family, general hedonism and fun.

He used it up with constant suffering hoping (and he knew in vain) to try and save others from dying as he did.

Now I could see you argue that one.



As for "who decides what is right"


Why does everyone need one definition? Different people can have different heroes. Other people can have differeing views.

 

[s243a]

s243a - that is a baiting question.

In the context of this thread, "rightness" could easily come to mean the promotion of what is commonly considered good, also perhaps the prevention of harm.

But please let's avoid doing just what you're doing, asking silly technical questions that result in the thread being jacked into semantic silliness.

Pangloss

It is not silly though. The guy at Vergina tech thought he was a hero. Suicide bombers think they are hero's. Native Americans sabotaging trains think they are hero's. Union people sabotaging plants think they are heroes. Chavez and Castro think they are hero's.

 

[Pangloss]

Well, this is the point where a decent thread spins helplessly into insanity.

Pangloss

 

[s243a]

Well, this is the point where a decent thread spins helplessly into insanity.

Pangloss

Why do you consider it insane that a hero in one persons eyes is a villain in another's. Why not accept we all have our own hero's based on what we ourselves judge as significant. If you hate golf you might not find Tiger Woods much of a hero. Similarly jump in a cold rive could be no big deal to one person, well to that same person working a 100 hour week could be a considerable sacrifice. Why do you choose to deny people the freedom to judge for themselves what they consider a heroic sacrifice.

 

[Pangloss]

I would say he was heroic, he gave something up that was irreplacable.

He knew he had about a year left. Rather than use his final hours partying, making amends with friends and family, general hedonism and fun.

He used it up with constant suffering hoping (and he knew in vain) to try and save others from dying as he did.

Now I could see you argue that one.

As for "who decides what is right"

Why does everyone need one definition? Different people can have different heroes. Other people can have differeing views.

Z:

He spent his remaining time in the best way he knew. Anything else would have been, to him, squandering his time.

He was not a partier. He was with his family. He could better achieve his goal by becoming a tragic figure, a myth, if I can only slightly misuse a word, to advance his cause of money for cancer research.

He did nothing in vain - as one of the journalists covering the story (there was no other story in Canada at the time) - he knew the chances of beating his last recurrence of cancer was remote.

His goal was not to cure cancer - is was to raise money for cancer research and he did that very well.

An awesome man - one we could all do well to emulate. Not a hero.

As to your last four sentences: if every word was up to the individual to define any way they chose, then communication would quickly become meaningless. Hence the famous feminist slogan, "no means no." But that is another thread.

Also a great punk band.

Pangloss

 

[s243a]

His goal was not to cure cancer - is was to raise money for cancer research and he did that very well.

An awesome man - one we could all do well to emulate. Not a hero.

As to your last four sentences: if every word was up to the individual to define any way they chose, then communication would quickly become meaningless. Hence the famous feminist slogan, "no means no." But that is another thread.

Also a great punk band.

Pangloss

If you survived cancer because of those research dollars you might sing a differnt tune. The word hero comes from greak mythology. The greeks believed the winner of the Olympics was part god. AKA a hero. Athletes embody much of the characteristics of a hero.

 

[Zzarchov]

Wait a minute?

So running in agony isn't squandering your time?

You give me one year left Im not running across the country, Im probably not doing anything noble either.

It probably involves a year straight of crossing things off the ole life checklist

[ X ] Went to Egypt
[ X ] Had water balloon fight in Bridal Store
[ X ] Jumped Schoolbus on Dirtbike

Etc etc etc



I fail to see how "The only thing he had left to do" was try and help others or be on the news? The last thing I would want would to be on the news.

I mean, man.

He has a noble goal, so therefore he isn't a Hero since self-sacrifice is the only way to that goal?

Who is your Hero? I named one, I think you should..make sure his sacrifice wasn't the only way to achieve his goal of helping others though. (sorry if Im snarky, that concept kinda torpedoes all my Heroes and Heroines as Hero's though)

 

[Pangloss]

Z: love your list - and yes, I'd probably do the same, if I was as creative.

As for naming a hero - see, that's part of the problem. The whole hero=celebrity thing. There is something about the heroic act that has nothing to do with public recognition.

I know a sound guy who pulled a couple out of a burning car and tried to hide that he had burnt his hands - he thought his act was a private one and ". . .something any decent person would have done."

His words.

Fox was all the things I've already said, and I have yet to be convinced my assessment is incorrect. Fox did not call himself a hero, nor, for years, did his family.

Fox's point was that anyone could do what he did, that he wasn't exceptional - that all Canadians were capable of selflessness, of the grand gesture.

To call him a hero is, in a way, to undermine what he did.

Pangloss

water balloon fight in a bridal store, eh?

 

[s243a]

Z: love your list - and yes, I'd probably do the same, if I was as creative.

As for naming a hero - see, that's part of the problem. The whole hero=celebrity thing. There is something about the heroic act that has nothing to do with public recognition.

I know a sound guy who pulled a couple out of a burning car and tried to hide that he had burnt his hands - he thought his act was a private one and ". . .something any decent person would have done."

His words.

Fox was all the things I've already said, and I have yet to be convinced my assessment is incorrect. Fox did not call himself a hero, nor, for years, did his family.

Fox's point was that anyone could do what he did, that he wasn't exceptional - that all Canadians were capable of selflessness, of the grand gesture.

To call him a hero is, in a way, to undermine what he did.

Pangloss

water balloon fight in a bridal store, eh?

So do you think he was a hero then or are you just giving another example of someone you think doesn't qualify as a hero. I think celebrity is part of it though because if people don't know about it how can it inspire someone else?

 

[Zzarchov]

To be fair, ANYONE could jump into a burning building to pull someone out too. Everyone can be a Hero, a hero is someone who makes the tough choice (in my books)

 

[#juan]

I would say he was heroic, he gave something up that was irreplacable.

He knew he had about a year left. Rather than use his final hours partying, making amends with friends and family, general hedonism and fun.

He used it up with constant suffering hoping (and he knew in vain) to try and save others from dying as he did.

Now I could see you argue that one.





As for "who decides what is right"


Why does everyone need one definition? Different people can have different heroes. Other people can have differeing views.

Where did you get that Terry Fox knew he had only a year left? Terry Fox was forced off his run by the return of the disease. He didn't plan it that way. He planned to run across Canada.

 

[#juan]

I would say he was heroic, he gave something up that was irreplacable.

He knew he had about a year left. Rather than use his final hours partying, making amends with friends and family, general hedonism and fun.

He used it up with constant suffering hoping (and he knew in vain) to try and save others from dying as he did.

Now I could see you argue that one.





As for "who decides what is right"


Why does everyone need one definition? Different people can have different heroes. Other people can have differeing views.

Where did you get that Terry Fox knew he had only a year left? Terry Fox was forced off his run by the return of the disease. He didn't plan it that way. He planned to run across Canada.

 

[Pangloss]

To be fair, ANYONE could jump into a burning building to pull someone out too. Everyone can be a Hero, a hero is someone who makes the tough choice (in my books)

Yes.

Pangloss

 

[able]

I believe the Victoria Cross or the Congressional Medal of Honour settled this discussion before it started. Heroism should be left to itself. Everyday acts of common human decency are just that, nothing more, nothing less. Too many things in our society have been downgraded to the point where they have become attainable by the undeserving. I served 10 years in the military, and never received a medal for bravery, that seems fair to me, because I didn't earn it. Why not leave some things as they were.

 

[Pangloss]

I believe the Victoria Cross or the Congressional Medal of Honour settled this discussion before it started. Heroism should be left to itself. Everyday acts of common human decency are just that, nothing more, nothing less. Too many things in our society have been downgraded to the point where they have become attainable by the undeserving. I served 10 years in the military, and never received a medal for bravery, that seems fair to me, because I didn't earn it. Why not leave some things as they were.

Again, yes.

Pangloss

 

[Curiosity]

Heros change in my lifeview because our lives change along with those who gain that status...

Right now my definition are the young guys eighteen and older who spent time in rehab with my nephew who returned from Iraq missing some of his body.

The rehab center in SFO (this was after he transferred from Walter Reid) is like an alien planet movie with all kinds of contraptions replacing what we hardly ever think of as our functioning physical selves... acknowledging their presence perhaps when we shower or get an itch.... not high on our list of 'thinks' during a day.....

The dark circles under the eyes, pale faces, weight loss, arm and leg loss and much more invisible loss being coped with.... shaven heads, some teeth missing in a few who try to conceal it.... but the smiles were available when they saw visitors and people to relieve the boredom of the endless days....

The day one guy - Ron - finally dealt a pack of cards with his new 'arm' and 'hand'.

Their lives forever changed..... why? Because they chose. These are my heros.

Maybe in the future I'll find other heros doing other things for all of us.
I hope the days of the fallen warriors will soon be in our past.