Month: September 2017

Charlie Gills presents a very interesting, yet pessimistic view on heroism due to how opportune it is to become a hero and the amount of “heroes” arising because of it. In his article “Let’s Redefine “Hero,” he makes the argument that “if everyone’s a hero, logic suggests, then no one’s a hero.” Although he is correct from a logical standpoint, it is not very practical to say that every person in the world sees everyone as heroes. Not only are there some people who are not heroes, but a majority people would not have the popularity to be publicly seen and defined as a hero. For example, in the following YouTube clip I included, Spongebob sees Kevin the Sea Cucumber as a “hero” and holds a lot of admiration towards him. On the other hand, Patrick Star identifies him as just “a nerdy pickle” due to his little to no significance to Patrick. This can be directly connected to other people’s choices of heroes; just because he or she is not your hero, does not mean he or she is not someone else’s. However, the lack of knowledge about another person is enough justification to not classify him or her as a hero.

Gills’s argument brings up a very interesting point: the fact that there are significantly more heroes in the world than one might initially think. Similar to the firefighter and kitten picture from class as well as the picture I posted below, even the ones who are saved can be heroes. You do not have to be a hero only towards random pedestrians; you can be the hero of another hero. Heroes can range from the typical superhero, mother, or police officer to the most discrete choices, like Kevin for Spongebob. Regardless of who you choose to be your hero, I think that anyone and everyone has the potential to be a hero, so there should be no shame in selecting someone unobvious.

 

(Ignore title of the video)

I thought that being an Olympic athlete would already be quite of an accomplishment, especially as an 18-year-old, but Yusra Mardini took it a step further: she and three other swimmers swam for three hours pushing a sinking boat that had 20 people to safety whilst entertaining the six-year-olds on that boat. Not only was that super exhausting to the point of pain, but she now has a fear of open waters. An Olympic swimmer who has a fear of open waters is not something you would expect; I definitely did not so my respect for her grew greatly as a result. Yusra is a young Syrian refugee who risked her own life and career as an Olympic swimmer to save 20 people that she did not know personally when more selfish options were available: wait for help, swim to safety solo, or even just choosing to not entertaining the children. Just based on these facts, I thought it would be extremely difficult to not call Yusra a hero. However, a fellow classmate introduced me to his non-heroic point of view of Yusra, and I admittedly see but do not completely agree with it.

Aside from any ridiculous arguments, like sexism, valid arguments against Yusra’s heroic act do exist. The entire incident was caused due to poor decision making by everyone on the boat, including Yusra herself. The boat was meant to hold six people yet there were 20; with over doubled the intended amount, an accident was bound to occur. Within the article, Yusra is the main focus on the incident, yet there were three other people who were also heroic. Besides Yusra’s sister, who may have only been mentioned due to familial relationships, the other two swimmers received little credit. They did not even get their names mentioned. Just because Yusra Mardini is the only Olympic athlete of them does not mean she deserves the most credit for the act. Although easily amendable mistakes were made, Yusra is still an imperfect human whose heroic deed outweighed her negatives regardless.