This might be a key point to my perspective. I see heroism as almost entirely defined by: "an individual taking extreme personal responsibility to change or alleviate a dire situation which has been caused by systemic and/or institutional failures."
To me, if you know the system is going to let a rapist continue to rape someone, and you stop them. That is heroic. If you simply stop him before the police get there to stop him, that is just an act of moral goodness.
In my opinion, I see heroism as directly intertwined to an individual's response to a system's actions.
Dude, that's a ridiculous definition of heroism. Stopping a dangerous violent criminal attempting to hurt someone is a heroic act regardless of whether or not the police are on their way.
I think you're confusing my definition of heroism with "commendable" or "praise-worthy".
I don't see heroism as something that you simply should do from a moral perspective, nor do I see it as something that you are obligated to do. You are not a hero because you did your duty. You are also not a hero because you did something that everyone agrees that they would also have done because it was right.
To me, a hero is doing something akin to an impossible task. A hero is going, literally, beyond the call of his duty. In fact, the institution that gave him his duty may have failed, and someone must take personal responsibility to put the weight of the system on their shoulders and orient the whole thing in the right direction. That seems more appropriate to the definition of a "heroic effort".
Heroism isn't a perfect solution though. Running into a burning building to save a child is heroic, but its also likely to get you trapped and need rescuing too.
That's part of my definition. Heroism is never perfect. In fact, by my definition, heroism is an insane effort to compensate for a systemic failure. The fact that someone had to be a hero, is the problem. If the system worked, you don't need heroes at all.
However, the greater evil is we live in a world where there is actual consequence worth hesitating over. That is the true horror.
Agreed, authoritarianism has a nasty habit of promoting the opposite behavior to what would be good.
This might be a key point to my perspective. I see heroism as almost entirely defined by: "an individual taking extreme personal responsibility to change or alleviate a dire situation which has been caused by systemic and/or institutional failures."
To me, if you know the system is going to let a rapist continue to rape someone, and you stop them. That is heroic. If you simply stop him before the police get there to stop him, that is just an act of moral goodness.
In my opinion, I see heroism as directly intertwined to an individual's response to a system's actions.
Dude, that's a ridiculous definition of heroism. Stopping a dangerous violent criminal attempting to hurt someone is a heroic act regardless of whether or not the police are on their way.
I think you're confusing my definition of heroism with "commendable" or "praise-worthy".
I don't see heroism as something that you simply should do from a moral perspective, nor do I see it as something that you are obligated to do. You are not a hero because you did your duty. You are also not a hero because you did something that everyone agrees that they would also have done because it was right.
To me, a hero is doing something akin to an impossible task. A hero is going, literally, beyond the call of his duty. In fact, the institution that gave him his duty may have failed, and someone must take personal responsibility to put the weight of the system on their shoulders and orient the whole thing in the right direction. That seems more appropriate to the definition of a "heroic effort".
Heroism isn't a perfect solution though. Running into a burning building to save a child is heroic, but its also likely to get you trapped and need rescuing too.
In this case, these people should have jumped in. There is no horror depraved enough to cast shadow over impurity, nor is there a consequence worth letting this go on.
However, the greater evil is we live in a world where there is actual consequence worth hesitating over. That is the true horror.
That's part of my definition. Heroism is never perfect. In fact, by my definition, heroism is an insane effort to compensate for a systemic failure. The fact that someone had to be a hero, is the problem. If the system worked, you don't need heroes at all.
Agreed, authoritarianism has a nasty habit of promoting the opposite behavior to what would be good.