Whatever Happened To The Heroes?

This is something which just occured to me today. Well, not just occured to me - it's been a point of concern for me for some time. Whatever happened to the heroes?

In line with the general internet trope of posting a video about this stuff, here is the video of the song. Which is completely irrelevant to the topic. But, hey.



Where have all the heroes gone, long time passing? I don't mean to bring up some discussion about the greatest generation or whatever - although perhaps that is relevant. No, I just want to discuss something I have noticed.

Periodically, network television runs out of ideas (shock!) and sometimes they don't have some over-boobed tart they can throw on the screen to get some ratings. And one of the things they turn to in this situation is getting a couple of actors, putting them in a park, and having them hit each other. And then see who steps in (if anyone) to stop the fight. Or, they have someone drop a wallet and see who hands it in. You know the drill - see if good Samaritans exist, or how many people will stop, or whatever.

Now, generally speaking people don't stop to help. They don't get involved. Sometimes they do, but generally speaking they don't. And then the network sticks on a psychologist who explains why.

You know what? This sort of thing concerns me - not the psychologist, but the fact that people don't get involved. That worries me a lot.

Not merely because I might be the guy who drops my wallet, but because it shows a very depressing fact about human nature - no-one is heroic any more. People just don't bother.

Now, I can understand the fact that people might not want to get involved in a brewing fight for fear of getting hurt (although it is, strangely enough, women who get involved more often than men and - despite what you might see on Xena - women are not as tough as men) but what about when it is just verbal? What about when there is absolutely zero risk of physical injury?

The only time this occurs is when someone is being assaulted on the internet, really - someone is being nasty and bullying to someone else. I understand that there are bullies everywhere in the world, and that John Gabriel's Greater Internet ****** Theory (note, this link may contain offensive words to some) is well-documented - but why are there no heroes?

That's my real issue. Not the presence of punks who feel big by insulting someone else, or telling someone to kill themselves, or just being nasty. Idiots have always existed and always will. But why does no-one put them in their place, or at least tell them they are wrong to do such a thing?

This was sparked by a discussion on a forum I am a member of - other people told a user that he should kill himself, and that he was a waste of a human being and so forth. People were, basically, just hurtful.

Very, very few people stood up to say that behaviour was unacceptable. Not to say that the guy being bullied was an awesome dude (he wasn't) but simply to say that telling someone to kill themselves is not cool.

I stood up. I tried to be a hero. And I got blasted and roasted for it - people said that I should let people say what they like, that it didn't matter. Even that people just say stuff and it doesn't mean anything. Plenty of people seemed to think their behaviour was acceptable.

But, for the most part, people just stood pasively by and let it happen.

You know what? I am not sure why people are like this - maybe they always were like this, passive and only-concerned with themselves. The whole "First they came for the Jews . . ." speech is relevant here, I guess. I don't know what causes this - my boss tells me that it's down to the individualism arising from the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment, and I am inclined to agree.

But I will tell you what I do know - a lot of the bad things in this world are completely down to a lack of heroes. Of people who won't do the right thing when all it will cost them is a little bit of time. Imagine if everyone spoke out against injustice - imagine what the world would be like. Imagine if, instead of smiling sicklyly when someone mentioned something immoral, people stood up and said, "Actually, I think that is wrong and bad."

Imagine that world. And then, the next time you are in a position to do something about something, do something. I am sick and tired of being the only damn hero I know.