Heroism

The American society seems to have, to some extent, gotten very relaxed about what is the definition of a hero.

When Chesley Sullenberger III landed an Airbus A320 safely in the Hudson River, sparing the lives of some 155 people, he was called a hero. Much media hoopla ensued, and I think he had earned all of it fair and square. Not so much because of his amazingly skilled (and lucky as hell) landing in the Hudson, but because he has been in the aviation security business for a long time. He was not just some pilot who is good at flying planes and caught a break. He is someone who has a calm demeanor and decades of aviation experience as his foundation, and on top of that foundation he has built a career focused on safety and professionalism.

There have been heroes among flight attendants who have given their lives protecting airline passengers from hijackers and terrorists. There were heroes among the firemen, police officers, emergency medicine technicians, and countless others who worked tirelessly in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York. Some of them died for their jobs.

But then there are these very relaxed definitions of heroism. There is the little boy who poured juice in his father’s mouth after the father had been unconscious for hours as a result of complications with his Diabetes. The boy is no doubt a hero to his father; he said as much on CNN.

To me it seems as if we are redefining heroism as not so much sacrificing yourself for the well-being of others, but just doing the right thing or enduring a difficult experience and surviving it.

Some people on Internet forums and news sites were brazen enough to refer to the Flight 1549 (the plane Sullenberger landed in the Hudson) passengers as heroes. Why? Because they survived. Perhaps part of it was the fact that many of them were interviewed extensively on television and in print. Surely only a hero would be seen on television recounting the horrific moments of a close-call airplane incident. Only a hero could survive a crash landing and the freezing temperatures of the Hudson. Only a hero would live to tell the tale.

If there were heroes onboard Flight 1549, then those were all the members of the flight staff; the flight attendants, the co-pilot, the flight engineer… Each of them had a part to play in the safe evacuation of the passengers and bringing everyone home safe and sound.

But once again we have to examine the uncomfortable detail of definition. What makes someone heroic? If the flight staff had done a half-assed job at evacuating the passengers, but everyone still made it out alive, would they still have been called heroes? The safety of the passengers is the primary concern for the flight staff, and a smooth evacuation is not an act of self-sacrifice – it’s part of the job description. By getting those passengers out intact they were doing their jobs. They did the right thing.

Is that sufficient to call them heroes? And if it is not, then what must one do in this day and age to be a hero?