Historical examples of heroes for NOT doing something

[Tripler]

Beaten by two hours.

Tripler
He immediately popped into my mind when I read the OP, tovarisch.

[Frodo]

Arguably he was mentioned in the OP:

@Dr_Paprika

I can think of the Russian soldier who did not fire the nukes when the computer malfunctioned

[mcgato]

Frances Kelsey, as a reviewer with the FDA, refused to approve thalidomide for market due to lack of evidence regarding the drug’s safety. Saved a lot of birth defects in the US.

[Tripler]

@Frodo

Arguably he was mentioned in the OP:

That’s what I get for skimming the OP while waiting to board a flight.

Tripler
Now boarding Section Facepalm.

[Little_Nemo]

@Kropotkin

Given that much of the history that is taught, from Dionysius on, is authorized by people in power who wish to maintain the system, it is not surprising that it celebrates the “men of action” who defend and expand the system, rather than those women and men who are exploited by the system. Those “men of action” are cast as heroes to inspire loyalty and admiration to and for the system

I feel that this isn’t generally true. History and literature are full of examples of rebels, tricksters, and underdogs being the heroes.

[Kropotkin]

Your point is correct, but my point is much of the history that is taught in schools and officially commemorated is not that kind of history. Speaking as a historian who teaches a first year university survey course and adult education, my experience is the “standard stories” are still told. The “new social history” of the 1970s and 1980s has not trickled down to the K-12 curriculum, and is not the history one gets, in general, from the media. Quick poll you can do at home: ask people where the term Luddite comes from. Or look at the opposition to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the US: it’s the political take his opponents hate.

[KCB615]

@Velocity

In 1999, in Connecticut, there was a US Airways crew that was praised for twice refusing to take off despite being ordered by an air traffic controller to do so - the reason being that they suspected the runway was obstructed by another aircraft. (It was a foggy night and nobody could see the runway in its entirety.) As it turned out, they were absolutely correct; the runway was indeed blocked at the time and the crew’s wise restraint saved many lives.

[Nitpick] Rhode Island, not Connecticut. [/nitpick]