[ExI] Heroism without self-sacrifice

[Stefano Vaj]

On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 3:54 AM, Max More <max at maxmore.com> wrote:
> Department of Strategic Philosophy
>  Professor Max More
>  Course 510: Extropic Myth Analysis
>
>  Your mission--should you choose to accept it--is to reconceptualize
>  the hero myth, removing the core element of self-sacrifice.

I have not read the rest of the thread, but have reflected a little on the
assigned "demonstration", and the following is what I could come up with:

- Essentially and originally a hero is simply an individual denoted by a
semi-divine status: in the Ancient Greece, an individual typically endowed
by his genetic (!) peculiarity, as the hybrid offspring of a god and a human
being, allowing and making him behave in a "heroic", i.e., extraordinary,
way (reversing the myth, heroics of a given individual may make for a
semi-divine status attributed to, and recognised in, him by the relevant
community). Self-sacrifice has thus not anything necessarily to do with the
idea of "heroic", and more with the idea of "tragic", even though the two
ideas are intertwined (see below).

- Undeniably, however, in most cases the hero myth finishes with the end of
at least the natural life of the individual concerned (death, ascension to
heaven, departure towards the land beyond the sea, whatever). OTOH,
traditionally, this had hardly the connotation of "acceptance of suffering",
"self-denial", "humble renunciation to the world and its appeals" that it
took in monotheistic cultures. "Sacrifice" was etymologically intended as a
triumphal and final achievement "making something sacred" (see "sacrum
facere" in Latin).

- Even in the everyday concept of hero, heroics have more to do with the
idea of "putting oneself fully into play", "being the living incarnation of
a cause", or "consciously accepting the related risks", than with personal
self-sacrifice, which is at most a possible, and certainly not deliberately
and masochistically sought, outcome of such a position. Thus again, nothing
prevents a (lucky) hero from escaping all forms of "sacrifice", and living
instead a rather happy and fulfilling life, even though only as a byproduct
of his other goals.

Stefano Vaj
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