[ExI] Heroism without self-sacrifice

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Sat Mar 8 01:07:44 UTC 2008


On Sat, Mar 8, 2008 at 12:55 AM,  ABlainey wrote:
<snip>
>  Would a bomb disposal expert be considered heroic? what if the risk were
> removed and they were doing it from the comfort of a van, operating a robot?
> To me there are many factors in heroism which sway the equation. Personal
> risk, duty, gain, relation to the person/thing being saved, Kudos,
> probability of success, level of self worth, etc. Other factors sway it as
> well such as are there any other people who could step up to the plate and
> do the deed, or would the deed save more lives' than would be risked.
>
>  I am at a loss to think of an example of being heroic without any risk.
> Certainly not within my own context of the word 'Hero.'
>


This reminds me of the company IT 'hero'. The firefighter who runs
around from emergency to emergency, shouting a lot, working through
the night, and accepting all the rewards and applause.

While Dilbert in his cubicle, does his backups, applies his patches,
runs through his checklists, etc. and never has an emergency. And
everybody wonders what his job is, as he never appears to be doing
anything.

Who's the real hero?

BillK



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