I was born in 1934 during the Great Depression. Dad drove a city bus in Amarillo Texas. My family moved to a very small town in Oklahoma before my first birthday; I had four siblings at the time we moved from Texas to Oklahoma to manage a small café and hotel that was then being managed by my uncle who wished to return to farming.
During the next 15 years my family managed that café and hotel. The building and the business was owned by an absentee landlord, Mr. Ruttzel. The operation was a 24/7 job that took the total energies of all members of the family as each of us became old enough to work.
This operation allowed my parents to raise a large family in reasonably comfortable conditions throughout the depression and war years of World War II.
What is the meaning of ‘hero’? I have taken one definition from the dictionary and have modified it to represent my comprehension of this concept of ‘heroic’. Heroic is a concept meaning a “determined effort [directed to achieve good or deter evil] in the face of difficulty”. In this definition I define ‘good’ as being that which promotes human life and ‘evil’ as that which promotes human death.
I think that there are degrees of heroic action. Some heroes are greater than others depending upon the circumstances of their action. To be a hero often requires courage and often causes personal hardship.
On a scale of one to ten I would classify the following people as heroes in most people’s judgment:
Mother Theresa (10)
Police and firemen entering the burning buildings in 9/11 attack (8 to 10)
My mom and dad (7)
Men and women fighting in Iraq: our side (5 to 10) their side (?)
Youngster really trying to make good grades in school (7)
The psychologist Alfred Adler said: “The supreme law [of life] is this: the sense of worth of the self shall not be allowed to be diminished.”
Heroic actions are our means for maintaining our self esteem. Without heroic action we cannot maintain our own self-esteem. Self-esteem is self-respect. We judge our self as to the degree of worthiness for respect. We rely partially upon the judgment of others but that respect from others is filtered by our own judgments to how heroic our actions are.
**It appears that we must feel self-esteem or we suffer mental illness of one degree or another. I gain self-esteem by reading lots of stuff, writing about that stuff, and posting that stuff on this forum, i.e. I am a self-actualizing self-learner (6).
One reason that I posted this was because I wanted to introduce a word that is so very important to the sciences of psychology and psychoanalysis.
All that I have read about these two sciences indicate that what are called heroic acts are those acts that reinforce our self-esteem and with out self-esteem we are pitiful creatures.
We have many words in the language that have both a common usage and also have a technical usage. The word ‘hero’ is one such word. I have been studying psychology and psychoanalysis for the last many months and these domains of knowledge use the word ‘hero’ in a technical manner.
One of the difficulties we always have when we try to learn a domain of knowledge that is new to us is learning the vocabulary. The OP reflects how this word is used in these sciences.
My act is heroic if I think it is and it is also heroic if others think that it is. If my act is heroic then my self-esteem grows. We are not talking about absolutes here. In some cultures if I stone to death my sister for dishonoring my family then my act is heroic.
Lack of self-esteem is one of the major causes of mental illness. This lack of self-esteem can also lead to obesity when the individual tries to find solace in food when self-esteem is not up to par.
Yet so often we hear people who have done something generally considered heroic refuse the word, claiming that anyone would have done what they did in the situation.
As for Adler, I was much impressed by a personal experience. Once, in 1919, I reported to him a case which to me did not seem particularly Adlerian, but which he found no difficulty in analyzing in terms of his theory of inferiority feelings, Although he had not even seen the child. Slightly shocked, I asked him how he could be so sure. “Because of my thousandfold experience,” he replied; whereupon I could not help saying: "And with this new case, I suppose, your experience has become thousand-and-one-fold."Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations
There is no debate, here, great or otherwise and I cannot figure out whether you are simply posting a paean to your parents (MPSIMS) or seeking a poll on what other posters perceive as heroic (IMHO).
[ /Moderating ]
Not that special. I’m afraid. coberst, if it interests you, look into the difference between self esteem and self-compassion. Psychology has lately made a distinction between the two for interesting reasons.
I suspect this is more a matter of modesty. I suspect that when the crowd says that s/he is a hero s/he feels like a hero except in very unusual circumstances. However, the final decision is with the self.
That is a good question. What is a science? It is a matter worthy of much thought.
The books that I have been reading about this matter are:
The Denial of Death by Becker
Life Against Death by Norman Brown
Beyond Alienation by Ernest Becker
Moral Imagination by Mark Johnson
The Birth and Death of Meaning by Norman Brown
The Death and Rebirth of Psychology by Ira Progoff
This is one of my means for heroic action. I read lots of stuff, I write about what I read as a means for understanding, and I often post what I write. I do this because I think that it fits my meaning for the word “heroic”, as you will find in the OP. My posts are an attempt to help others to become conscious of what I think are very important ideas.
I am a retired engineer and I spend on average four hours every day reading, writing, and communicating via the Internet forum. Reading and writing are, in my opinion, very fine hobbies for older people. It is my advice to everyone that they begin developing an intellectual life as soon as their school daze are over.
These are important ideas that I think are worthy of serious consideration. These ideas do require some thought and even study before one can feel confident in discussing them. I would rather that they not be hidden away because I think that serious minds must be presented with serious ideas. I assume this forum is for serious ideas that may provoke serious thoughts.
However, the forum is one of debate and you have posted a random thought with no thesis to debate.
You can discuss this in the IMHO Forum and if a debate breaks out, the Mods there can send it back. This is not “hiding it away,” just putting threads where they will get the appropriate attention.
