Heroism and Victimhood

 

There were two article at the Free Press this week about men and heroism. Both were well written, but one in particular misunderstood heroism in a way that is typical of out cultural milieu by its emphasis on sacrifice. It is an example of the present and recent tendency to glorify victims and victimhood, sometimes to the extent of an apparent inability to admire or care about much else. It shows up when politicians and media people try to say something nice about veterans and members of the armed forces. It is almost always some cliché about their sacrifice. Yet the real virtue is not sacrifice but valor – doing a tough, dangerous job with honor and fidelity at mortal risk. One can illustrate this with a simple thought experiment. If the men who stormed the beaches at Normandy on D-Day had gone ashore meek and unarmed and been slaughtered to a man while accomplishing nothing, their sacrifice would have been complete. Yet I doubt that reasonable people would have found that admirable or that Americans would rightly be commemorating their deeds eighty years later.

Heroes sometimes fail and sometimes suffer and die, but that is not what makes them heroic. The present day apotheosis of victims and victimhood is not only incompatible with heroism and the desire for the heroic. It is antithetical to them.