Simple Wisdom
The Scarcity of Heroes
By Pat Lencioni
When I was a kid, I loved watching movies about heroes. Whether it was George Washington, Jackie Robinson, Thomas More or pretty much any character played by Jimmy Stewart, I was drawn to people who stood up for what was right even in the face of great criticism, opposition or persecution. As a result, I assumed the world was full of heroes, and I wanted to be like them some day.
I have to admit that a big part of my motivation was probably the fact that every hero I saw on the screen was ultimately vindicated and celebrated in the end, hoisted on the shoulders of the people he or she had fought for, or awarded a medal. Even Saints and others who died fighting for a cause were vindicated; after all, someone had made a movie about them!
Now that I’m older I’ve come to terms with a few disappointing realities. First, there aren’t that many heroes around. Second, and this is certainly the cause of the first, many people who stand up for what is right are never really vindicated or celebrated. Some suffer the consequences of their heroism and are largely forgotten.
The truth is, heroism is a lonely, difficult and rare phenomenon. And while it’s tempting to say that this is a sign of our times—and perhaps it is—I’m guessing that there weren’t all that many Jimmy Stewart-like characters running around throughout history as movies might have suggested.
While this might not seem like much of a revelation—news flash, heroism is rare—what I find particularly interesting is that the nature of being a hero in the world where I live, and the cost of being a hero, is relatively minor compared to what others have had to endure in the past.
Few of us today—at least not in America—are faced with physical harm, imprisonment or brutal discrimination for speaking out against something that needs correcting. George Washington would have been hanged had the British won the Revolutionary War. Jackie Robinson was the target of very real threats for breaking the color barrier in baseball, and St. Thomas More was indeed beheaded for refusing to approve the divorce of his friend, King Henry VIII.
Today, we are more often faced with having to stand up to a boss, a teacher or a fellow parent in the carpool line, and the worst cost we can expect to bear is personal rejection, behind-our-back criticism, or maybe a little social isolation. Nothing to sneeze at, I realize, but a far cry from the guillotine or an angry mob. And yet, we balk. I balk. When it comes time to speak up, to take an unpopular stand, we are so easily paralyzed by consequences that are ultimately insignificant.
The more I think about this, the more I think that as a society, we have become soft, afraid to suffer even a little for a cause that is controversial. And as we prepare to celebrate the founding of the United States and the sacrifices that were made then to bring this nation about, it’s worth asking ourselves the question: how can we reverse this trend?
Of course, ideally we could all come to the realization that the world needs more heroes and that it’s time to develop a stronger collective backbone. But that doesn’t happen overnight. In the mean time, maybe we could do something a little more realistic: the next time we witness someone taking a difficult stand for what is right, whether it is in the workplace, at school, in your church or little league, let’s take the time to tell them that we admire them for what they did. And better yet, let’s tell them that we wish we could be more like them, and that they’ve inspired us to try. Not only will that reinforce their heroic behavior, it will also increase the likelihood that the next time we are faced with a moment of truth, no matter how small it may seem, we choose to be a hero, too.
Happy 4th of July.