2006-10-26

Definition of Hero

'This Time writer got his hand blown off in Iraq when he instinctively reached down, grabbed a live grenade (he didn't know what it was), and tossed it out of a traveling military humvee. Does this make him a "hero"? According to the article:

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Wain defined heroism as quick response to a changing environment, like a driver who swerves into another lane for the purpose of avoiding an oncoming car and, in the process, saves the life of his passenger. "That wasn't his intent," he said. "But being flexible and shifting is a higher level of intelligence. The people who can't change die."
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This is the dumbest definition of a hero I've ever come accross. It incorrect, and the Time writer does not qualify as a "hero." There can only be one logical definition of a hero: Somebody who commits an act that he believes will greatly increase the danger to his own life, in order to lesson the danger to somebody else.

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