-Caveat Lector-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4370610,00.html
The last word on heroism
My hero is he who wins praise without bloodshed - Martial
AC Grayling
Saturday March 9, 2002
The Guardian
March comes in like a lion, so the saying has it, and in respect of the peculiarly
vicious escalation of violence in the Middle East, Afghanistan and India since the
month began, the saying has a ghastly aptness - recalling the image in Shakespeare
of a maddened lion with bloody mouth, tearing everything before it, an emblem of
what issues from despair and hatred.
The active participants in these conflicts are doubtless thought heroes by the
constituencies of anger that they represent. They include the suicide bomber, the
jihadi with his Kalashnikov in a mountain cave, the sectarian with his club and the
firebrand intent on murder. In all cases they oppose professional, well-equipped
soldiers, who in turn are thought heroic by those who see them as protectors of
order.
Heroism is typically thought a warrior virtue, and it is true that, in the absence of
enough fanaticism or rage to make it unnecessary, "it indeed takes courage to fight
implacable enemies with guns and bombs, given that they answer in kind".
In self-defence against malign aggression, or in the interests of principle, such
courage would deserve the name of heroism. But all other fighting and killing,
squabbling and destroying, never does. On the contrary, heroism is first and
foremost the property of peace-makers. It takes infinitely greater courage to salvage
a people or an epoch from conflict than to start or continue it. The outstanding
figures
of our time, among whom Nelson Mandela is the exemplar, are those who seek
reconciliation, agreement, forgiveness - very milksop notions, no doubt, in the view of
people who think it cleverer to let their guns do their thinking and talking.
Such folk would scarcely merit even our contempt if it were not that their way of
solving problems does such fantastic harm, and if it were not that there is an
organised means of supplying them the wherewithal. Those who oppose them not
with returned gunfire but with offers of peace are as high above them morally as
Everest is above a wormcast.
Nathaniel Hawthorne remarked that "a hero cannot be a hero unless in an heroic
world". This is profoundly untrue. It is when the world has become sullied and
degraded by violent quarrels, when reason has yielded to frenzy, when all human
feeling has been boiled into hatred, that true heroism might flourish, if it can be
found. Part of the reason is that peacemakers usually have first to face the animosity
of their own side, which regards them as traitors and weaklings. They will be in the
uncomfortable position, at least for a time, of being better regarded by enemies than
by friends.
The people who could best thank them, if they were able to understand what was
done for them, would be those not yet born - next year's children, or in the longer
term, the beneficiaries of a generation which had the blessing of growing up in
peace.
The medieval Muslim sage Sa'di wrote, "Even if you could tear the head off an
elephant, if you are without humanity you are no hero." That is the key. There is a
quiet but not so small heroism of the moral life which is crucial here. It is very much
easier to be intolerant, angry, jealous and resentful than it is to be generous,
patient,
kind and considerate. Without question it takes far more thought, and far more work,
to treat others from the standpoint of these virtues than from that of those vices,
which is why the latter are so prevalent.
Each of the world's current conflicts needs just two individuals, leaders on opposing
sides, to stand up, meet, talk, keep clearly in view some image - a child blinded or
limbless because of bombing, say; and to agree a fixed determination not to use
large-scale murder as a way of managing differences. On that basis, real hope can
enter the picture. This is of course an extremely hard thing to achieve; but it is why
such individuals, if they were to appear, would be very great heroes indeed.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
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The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
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"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
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It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
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"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
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