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Examples of the phenomenon of pretend heroism consist of the so-called exploits of terrorists, killing, torturing and abusing hundreds of people for the sake of an idea. This is a vivid example of false, wrong heroism, since no goal is ever worth a drop of innocent blood spilled. Some young people engaged in gangs, and boasting of their actions, can also be attributed to pretended heroes. However, there are many examples of heroism for example Irena Sendler, she was a Polish hero, a Catholic woman who saved about 2,500 Jewish kids who were holed up in the Warsaw ghetto that the Nazis had erected.
She was able to convince the parents of these kids to allow her to smuggle them out of the ghetto to safety. (Zimbardo, 2011) Another example could be a nine-year-old Chinese boy called Lin Hao. In 2008, there was a massive earthquake in China’s Szechuan province.
The ceiling fell down on a school, killing almost all the kids in it.
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This kid escaped, and as he was running away, he noticed two other kids struggling to get out. He ran back and saved them. He was later asked, “Why did you do that?” He replied, “I was the hall monitor! It was my duty; it was my job to look after my classmates!” (Xinhua, 2008). These examples actually demonstrate a key principle of heroism; “Heroes are most effective not alone but in a network. It’s through forming a network that people have the resources to bring their heroic impulses to life.” (Zimbardo, 2011) Furthermore, in Zimbardo’s extensive research he confirms most of what was thought but not known before this point.
Zimbardo’s research highlights that actually heroes are around us all the time, one in 5 individuals is in fact a hero, he further details the importance of an opportunity for an act of heroism will occur, in an urban area there is far more likely to be acts of heroism as there is very little human to human interaction in rural areas.
Zimbardo also talks about education, the more educated an individual is the more likely you are to carry out an act of heroism, the most likely given reason is that you are simply more aware of situations. Some reasons that came as a surprise to me were that gender and race pay quite a large role in whether or not you deem yourself to be carrying out an act of heroism, women tend to carry out less heroic acts than men, Zimbardo does point out however, that women tend to play down the significance of their actions as they believe it is just something they should be doing for friends or family. Race matters because of the opportunity mentioned earlier, there are far more chances for blacks in fact Zimbardo says they were eight times more likely to qualify as heroes. The final and most important factor given by Zimbardo is your personal history. If your personal history contains an easy life of luxury, with little to no trauma you are far less likely to carry out an act of heroism, however if you have had some kind of personal trauma and tough upbringing; you are three times more likely to take part in act of heroism.
I believe that sacrifice contributes more to heroism because the individual invested his or her own determination, valour and accepting the opportunity to risk their self-health (physical or psychological) based on great intentions rather than reaping the accolades of committing good deeds. This is why I believe that although we may see celebrities giving large sums of money to charitable causes, they are not heroes and are not carrying out a heroic act, celebrities are trying to stay in the public eye in order to gain more fame and earn more money, their “charitable” natures are just a show and get too much credit for what they do, when there are millions of people who deserve way more than them.
Heroes a tend to have their own characteristics and attributes in the movies, however they all have the same basis, but as award winning author Jodi Picoult once said, “Heroes didn’t leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn\'t wear boots and capes. They bled, they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were possibly knotted, they could untangle someone else\'s. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.” (Picoult, 2003)
Heroes are often just another person with seemingly no different traits to another, they do not walk into the room with an aura that gives off heroism. I find however, that some of these traits do in fact define them as heroes. Heroes are caring, self-sacrificing, and brave to name a few.
Heroes all have certain traits, and not all of them are defined as “heroic”.
However, one trait I see most often in a hero is they are caring. Small acts of kindness like accepting the outcasts and the bullied can and should be seen as heroic, even standing up for an individual if they are being bullied. Another trait I feel all heroes share is their willingness to make self-sacrifices. An example of this comes from the article called “6 of the most inspiring stories of real-life heroism (so far)”. In the article, it tells about a man named Alfred McNamee who was in an underground train station in Philadelphia, and he walked off the edge of the platform. He fell onto the tracks, severely injuring himself in several places. A man named Charles Collins noticed him and instinctively jumped down to help Alfred get off the tracks. Collins could have been seriously hurt from jumping onto the tracks, but he chose to help Alfred despite the risk of getting himself hurt in the process. By doing this, he saved Alfred’s life. He could have just left him there and not have helped him to get out from the train tracks, and to selfishly let someone else handle it or even worse, let him die. Instead, he risked his own life for the sake of keeping another safe, something that is undoubtedly truly heroic. (Schneider, 2015).
This source is not fully reliable and perhaps twisted the story for a better read but nonetheless this event did happen, and all this source did was give an example of a great hero. Another trait I feel defines a hero is bravery. This is seen from almost all movie heroes, story heroes and ancient heroes. In contrast to the other source that pointed out great acts of heroism, The article “10 Suicide Stories with An Incredible Happy Ending”, is darker but it does create stark contrast in views on heroes, here we hear about the hero but not as the protagonist and in my opinion puts you in the shoes of the person feeling suicidal and allows you to see how much help just a stranger can give you. This article talks about a 15-year-old girl named Kylie. She, at the time, was feeling suicidal. She felt like she could not talk to her friends or family about how she was feeling being a teenage girl and all, so she went to Twitter to look for sympathy.
The bullies she had been dealing with saw these tweets, and instead of feeling bad about what they did and apologising, they made the situation worse by encouraging an already depressed Kylie to kill herself. She began to tweet about cutting herself and was at the lowest point of her life. An anonymous user who had been patrolling twitter and was looking out for things like this, decided to step in. He pulled the bullies’ contact information and threatened to show them to the police, their parents, their principal, and anyone in authority. Eventually, the bullies were let off with a warning and were told to apologize to the girl. Although the anonymous user could have left the situation alone to avoid any interaction in Kylie’s life, instead they chose a brave path and confronted the bullies and comforted Kylie, and perhaps saved her life that day. This source was very informative as it gave me an idea of what it really means to have a hero, someone brave enough to stand up for you when it matters most. (Morris.M, 2014)
Heroes are ordinary people. They are often invisible to the people around them but appear at the right times to save or protect. Like the anonymous user and like Collins, they help someone in need when a situation seems hopeless. These actions show that they are kind-hearted, valiant, and self-denying, all of which are traits that can truly define a hero. The problem is, all these sources did not just list the characteristics or actions, however this only shows that certain characteristics help to prompt action, and when the action is completed sometimes it is seen as heroic.
Therefore, I believe that both certain characteristics and actions are both fully necessary for someone to be defined a “hero”, this may attempt to be disputed by the ancient Greek heroes, but if you take Theseus for example, he and Pirithous decided that because they were the best warriors on the world they would steal Persephone and have her marry Pirithous, which ended up being their downfall. What made them think they could kidnap a goddess, hubris, they let their achievements get to their heads and therefore their characteristics let them down. (Fry, 2018). Theseus may have been considered an ancient hero but by today’s standards I think despite his achievements his downfall was deserved and would not be known to be a hero.
False and Wrong Heroism. (2020, Sep 03). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/false-and-wrong-heroism-essay
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