4-3 Heroes and Celebrities

Hero- a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. A person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model (Dictionary.com). Hero has been synonymous with warrior. Although we often link these words today, we do have an expanded, more inclusive definition of hero than the ones we inherited from the Greeks. Modern dictionaries list three qualities in common after the entry hero: extraordinary achievement, courage, and the idea (variously expressed) that the hero serves as a "model" or "example"--that heroism has a moral component.
A celebrity is a widely-recognized or notable person who commands a high degree of public and media attention. The word stems from the Latin verb "celebrare" but one may not become a celebrity unless public and mass media interest is piqued. There are degrees of celebrity status which vary based on an individual's region or field of notoriety. While someone might be a celebrity to some people, to others he may be completely unknown (Wikipedia).

Heroes are important because the term “hero” is the name given to extraordinary individual who embody qualities a society finds most admirable. Such people show us the way, energize us, and keep us from the darkness. They remind us of how much more we could do, and of how much better we could be. They instruct us in greatness and how to be great.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, hero was resurrected across the nation to describe the firefighters and police officers who lost their lives in the World Trade Center, rescue workers who patiently picked their way through the rubble, passengers who thwarted terrorists on a hijacked airplane, and soldiers who left on planes and ships. In difficult times, we turn to the word hero to express our deepest sorrow, our highest aspiration, and our most profound admiration (Gibbons, 2002).

Heroes teach us lessons of greatness. When Nelson Mandela left the South African prison without rancor, he invited his guards to his inauguration, we are instructed in magnanimity. When Mother Teresa moves to live among the poorest of Calcutta, we learn about compassion. James Stockdale, before joining Ross Perot in 1992 as a vice president candidate, spent eight years in a North Vietnamese prison and wasn’t broken, we now understand bravery.
We can challenge the times and be combative. In a bureaucratic age, celebrate individual achievement; in an egalitarian age, praise genius; when everyone is a victim, stress personal responsibility. In our popular culture, high culture and celebrity age, caution young people about worshiping fame and beauty; in a society mesmerized by athletes, recall the moral language of sport (Gibbons, 2002).

It’s a shame but many of us have never heard of Brian Chontosh. Chontosh was a 29-year-old Marine lieutenant leading his platoon on Highway 1, just outside Baghdad, Iraq when they came under heavy fire. He ordered his vehicle to head directly for the enemy trench, jumped out and began firing with his rifle and pistol, before running out of ammunition. The citation for Chontosh's Navy Cross reads: "With complete disregard for his safety, he twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack.... When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others."

This is a battlefield exploit worthy of someone you may have already heard of, Sgt. Alvin York. Sgt. York almost single-handedly killed 25 Germans and captured 132 enemy combatants, in 1918. You might know of York because he was played by Gary Cooper in the movie about him or maybe because of the half-dozen books that are still in print about him. We have collectively lost our ability to make popular battlefield heroes like York. With a few exceptions, like the extraordinary Pat Tillman, who left the NFL to join the Army Rangers or Jessica Lynch who became famous after she was captured by Iraqis and later rescued by fellow soldier man. The names, Lynch, Tillman, York and Chontosh are better known than the many others than are not known but have done much more notable things. These names are quickly forgotten when more important names like Hilton and Spears are thrust into our lives through our televisions and radio. In the last decade Americans have become almost obsessed with wanting to become a celebrity and to have their moment in the spot light, their 15 minutes of fame; therefore, redefining for the next generation what it means and what it takes to be a celebrity-hero.
Most of us look for heroes today among the famous because we have a fascination with celebrities and see them as something bigger than ourselves. Today, we are more likely to perceive a celebrity as a hero because they are famous.

The cult of celebrity is the widespread interest in arbitrarily famous individuals, has become a prominent social phenomenon in late 20th century in Western popular culture. The public fascination with such celebrities, driven by constant publicity and exposure in magazines, newspapers and television, fame is an essential prerequisite for celebrity status, though the principal reason for such fame is often minor. The cult of celebrity is often considered representative of the perceived attitudes towards deliberate apathy, trivia, and dumbing down in popular culture. It is associated with an increased focus on celebrity by the entertainment industry, including the growth of the reality television and talent shows like American Idol. Gossip-oriented magazines such as the National Enquirer have been almost entirely responsible for promoting the cult of celebrity (Wikipedia).

Today our culture tends to look for "heroes" who can be portrayed, not as warriors, but as ordinary people who overcame a struggle or outlast a competitor, like on the reality show Survivor. Our modern-day heroes are ones that beat another participant for the crown jewel of the sole-survivor on a TV show, becoming an instant celebrity. The hero turn celebrity is a recent phenomenon in American culture. They are not made during times of trial and great sacrifice; they are created each week by networks, manipulating the viewers to generate ratings. The meaning of hero in the 21st century has been watered down to define just about anyone as a potential hero-celebrity; it all depends on its marketability. A sad commentary on the values that our society places on who should become the next hero, or as we have come to expect, the next American Idol. My hope is that this discussion of heroes and celebrities will encourage us to become more interested in past and present public heroes and that it will revive the qualities of admiration, gratitude, and awe too long absent from our culture.

References

Gibbons, Peter (2002) Heroes for our age: How heroes can elevate student’s lives. Retrieved April 24, 2009, from http://www.aft.org/pubs-eports/american_educator/winter2002/Heroes.html
(Hero) Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hero