Is it the rigid application of a certain set of ideals? Is it bravery in the heat of battle or the face of adversity? How do you understand heroism?
I might eat out a garbage can if I'm on a PCP bender. Give me a medal.
Heroism = self-sacrifice.
In my opinion.
It is the one thing that you can never expect or demand from anyone. If it is done, it is done for love, or heroic practice of ideals.
Being brave is not heroic by itself. Robbing a bank takes courage, but I wouldn't call it heroic.
The willingness to die is something that can't be faked.
All sacrifice is sincere by definition.
I think this may be the most useful definition.
Perhaps more important, certainly equally important in these times, would be to identify things that are not heroic.
Take people who just happen to not get shot in a mass shooting for instance. There is nothing heroic about this whatsoever. It is just dumb 'luck' for lack of a better term. If you just happen to be near others who die and not die yourself, this does not make you a hero. I'm really sick of that shit.
It's been said often, including here in this thread that saying things that go against 'the norm' is heroic. Bullshit. Brave, maybe, certainly bold but not heroic by any stretch.
Another good example. People who are ill and going to die, but haven't died yet. This does not make you a fucking hero.
Hero's put their selves in real physical danger for the sake of others. You don't see them on the evening news. If someone did something heroic and then went on the news, it negates the deed. They are not heroes.
I definitely agree with you here. Some kid with cancer that puts on a brave face isn't a hero. Some unlucky chump who gets iced isn't either.
As other posters have said, self-sacrifice seems to be the main trait of a hero.
I agree with what you said about the moral nature of heroism. It is a very subjective concept.
Depending on what you believe almost any person generally regarded as a scoundrel to most could be a hero. Ex: Anders Brevik is indeed a hero to some.
Genuine self sacrifice, be it physical, mental, or spiritual for the betterment of a group or ideology seems to be solid criteria for a hero. But that's only if you're part of the group to be bettered.
It was just something that popped into my head at work. Thought it would make for a good discussion.
Someone who unnecessarily endures without direct personal gain, someone who bites the bullet to improve the lives of people who may not even realize it or give any gratitude.
Conversely, a hero is just an ideal, a symbol that encourages people to survive their own personal trials. A good example is the The Hero's Journey.
Honestly, my whole life all I've ever heard was "don't try to be a hero".
Now obviously there is going to be a distinction between superheroes and regular good guy heroes, but at the end of the day most of them get killed.
What does a hero mean to me? In this day and age I'd have to say that a hero is the person who goes against the crowd.
Heroism is having the bravery to go against social norms.
It is heroic to some.
Villainous to others.
Heroism and Villainy are two sides to the same coin.
Racism usually has its own crowd, so I doubt you could argue along these lines.
I don't consider myself a real racist, but I think racists can be heroic, as can other people I disagree with. Perhaps I'd initially define heroism as doing things that others would shy away from due to the personal risk involved. Hero is usually a label applied to others of the same alignment, so in the modern context the hero should have at least someone else on their side.
One person's hero is another's villain, and I'm guessing @X175B247 might relate to that given his previously expressed moral flexibility.
Its subjective. A hero to one person might be a villain to another.
I'd loosely define it as a label we assign people that exemplify traits we find lacking in ourselves.
To me heroism is like being pregnant: You either is or you ain't. I'm old, and I've been called a hero many times, but not usually for anything big. I've saved events big and small by fixing problems, even though I wasn't expected to do that. I've pushed cars out of snowbanks, stayed with a cyclist who blacked out in front of me until the ambulance arrived, and took the hand of a three year old girl who was walking down the middle of suburban street until I found a group of parents and kids. So, does that make me a hero? To some of them in some small way, yes, just as I consider the many people who have helped me out in ways big and small.
The simplest explanation is the actions of a person that other people might not do under normal circumstances.