America tolerates no heros.....

[Ian]

Cosmoline is right on. If heroes are being lost, it's because they weren't heroes in the first place. An awful lot (though not all) of American history was more conducive to creating villains rather than heroes.

edited to add:

Columbus.....Sailor, worked with sailors who were probably not such great guys.

Now there's an understatement. Columbus was really no different from any of the explorers who followed him. Cortez wiped out whole populations and we can say that in textbooks because he was Spanish. Columbus is identified with The American Tradition Of Peace, Freedom, Equality, And Happiness (tm), so he becomes an untouchable in school despite doing basically the same things. Well, he did oversee the beginning of a large slave trade, which Cortez fell short of.

Out of curiosity, who do you see as being a modern hero (as in historical figure hero, rather than the real life heroes Correia describes)?

 

[orangeninja]

Correia......right on.

The A-Team...John Wayne....not heros, they represented what the ideal of a hero was of the time. The 70's 80's etc. Does that make sense? Yeah...it was fake, most stuff, including the news is...however my question is:

"Is the ideal of heroism dead? Or is it changed?"

 

[Correia]

For those of us paying attention, it hasn't changed at all. For the wishy-washy, namby-pamby despot, hand wringing, hoplophobes, it has changed. But actually I bet they existed back then too.

If you are going to use TV as a barometer for culture, there was plenty of crap back then as well, only now we have another three hundred channels. If you want to compare entertainment, I'll take Blackhawk Down, Gladiator, the Patriot, or Braveheart over any 1970s-80s comedy/adventure show where nobody ever got hurt.

 

[Wayne D]

Correia,

Alduro is not saying there are no heroes, he's saying our society doesn't celebrate them like they did in the past. I think you just proved his point, because none of the stories you just listed received a tenth of the TV air time that the Iraqi prisioner scandal did. Hell, I haven't even heard of half of them and I try to stay informed.

 

[Delmar]

Alduro-turn off your TV for an entire week. You'd be amazed at how the optical rectalitis goes away.

My goodness-when they have "reality" TV shows on, which have absolutely no basis in reality, it cannot possibly be my world.

Refuse to let it become yours.

If you will look at the good in people, you will see it. There has only been one perfect human being that ever walked this earth, so we should take in account their shortcomings too.

 

[orangeninja]

Wayne D is exactly right. Thanks Wayne. I don't believe we as a nation celebrate heros and I think that the reason why is that the ideal of what a hero is has changed or failed to be acknowledged as was.


I also have not heard of the heros you mentioned but just for the record.

All service men and women, police, firefighters and EMTs are heros. It is a prerequisite for employment. There are bad ones, there are good ones, but the ones that do their job are heros.

As for using T.V. as a barometer, let's be honest, how much T.V. do you watch vs. books read? You may be the exception but T.V. and movies tend to summarize the written word for us and enable a greater knowledge base due to the speed with which the information may be obtained. But that's another debate.


"Alduro-turn off your TV for an entire week. You'd be amazed at how the optical rectalitis goes away."

Delmar...I think you miss the point. T.V. such as CNN is how 90% or more of the nation gets their news and information. I am talking of a national identity...not my personal beliefs. I am asking questions beyond myself...this is much like the prisons barometer quote I used earlier.


Edited to add:

"Out of curiosity, who do you see as being a modern hero (as in historical figure hero, rather than the real life heroes Correia describes)?"

I personally see uncelebrated heros EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE. However, I believe that the acknowledgement and ideal of the hero is now obscured. It was always abstract at best, perhaps this is my question. What is a hero to the United States?

A peace-nic hippy type who "bravely" opposes war as an end to a means and is willing to publicly protest and berate soldiers and politicians for war or the soldier he protests? Who is the hero in America's eyes?

 

[Delmar]

Alduro-thats part of what I am talking about. We as Americans see heros as just another soundbite, rather than in written word or other types of celebrations. There is not much in the way of ticker tape parades like before-and maybe thats a bad thing.

We are bombarded with so much TV information that you have to find a balance, and no one media will give you that.

I think one of the hardest things is to get Americans to stop and at least give a tip of the hat to those who have shown their mettle.

Used to be you would hear how Johnny Whatshisname hit XX home runs, ends up on the Wheaties box without the suspicion of steroids, or sleazy this and that.