We cannot live fully without heroes, for they are the stars to guide us upward. They are the peaks on our human mountains. Not only do they personify what we can be, but they also urge us to be. Heroes are who we can become if we diligently pursue our ideals in the furnace of our opportunities.
Heroes are those who have changed history for the better. They are not always the men and women of highest potential, but those who have exploited their potential in society's behalf. Their deeds are done not for the honor but for the duty. Through our study of heroes we enter the realities of greatness.
Heroes are the personification of our ideals, the embodiment of our highest values. A society writes its diary by naming its heroes. We as individuals do the same. When Socrates said, "Talk, young man, that I might know you," he could have also added, "Talk of your heroes that I might know not only who you are, but who you will become."
A discerning investor was having lunch with a young man who had recently been made CEO of a corporation. Early in the conversation he asked the young executive to talk of his heroes. The young man named a ruthless military genius and an arrogant executive. From then on, the conversation took a cool turn and ended much sooner than expected. Later, the investor said, "What a shame to turn over an organization to such immaturity." And because of his impression of the young man, he sold his large block of stock, which proved to be a wise decision.
Dr. J.C. Cain of the Mayo Clinic, when selecting the young medical men to be trained , had difficulty because of the exceptionally high caliber of the applicants. All had excellent grades, fine discipline, high motivation and good work habits. In searching for some question that would differentiate between them, he chose the same process as the investor, "Young man, tell me of your heroes." Dr. Cain found this was the best clue to their value structure.
Those who have no heroes have not yet identified their highest ideals. Greatness demands an appreciation of greatness shown in others. As a person changes his heroes, so he changes the direction of his life. The most unfortunate are those who egotistically become their own heroes, which is as disastrous as becoming one's own god.
In the 60's we went through an antihero period in which we were deifying the common man. This concept is a product of rebellion and nothingness in which there is no nobility to stir the spirit nor galvanize the will. Many were trying to see who could be the sloppiest, the lobbyist, and the funkiest. They chose the easiest — thought not the most profitable — way, for the gravity of man's apathy and his trend downward is working on their behalf. Envy and apathy make it easy to be antihero.
Currently the media are mythologizing heroes. Men unwilling to climb to great heights themselves often create slides for those who have climbed above them. Making all men equal, they make all common. The common man has done very little other than to pass life from one generation to the other, awaiting the uncommon man. George Bernard Shaw talks about this in his prologue to Man and Superman. Here he describes the common man as the wire that passes the current and the uncommon man as the appliance of life who does the great works. Heroes justify the elitism of responsibility and accomplishment which raise the base on which the common man stands.
Every age needs to add its heroes to the long list, establishing the tradition of values. As Shakespeare said. "So shall inferior eyes that borrow their behaviors from the great, grow great by your example and put on the dauntless spirit of resolution." Heroes not only inspire us, but they prove the greatness of which the human spirit is capable. In looking up, we are drawn up.
Generally, heroes cannot be current, for as Will Rogers said, "Being a hero is about the shortest-lived profession on earth." Generations must pass before history's spotlight is able to correctly shine on those who are to be our heroes. Rudyard Kipling put it this way, "It is the next generation that, looking over its own, will see the heroes of our own time clearly." We cannot be so anxious to be living among heroes that we try to identify them. Better to use the current ones as models and let history select them as heroes.
