Myths and Heroes

« though they are not real. To my mind, the image of the hero has evolved from a rather unpleasant way, since nowadays, anyone can be called a hero.

For example, let's talk about Felix Baumgartner.

He's the new holder of the world record for skydiving height, jumping out of a tiny capsule, 39 kilometers up in the sky.

He broke the sound barrier on his descent.

He's the first human that has ever done that.

We could say, according to our prior definition, that he is a hero.

Yet, his he really one? What is so exceptional about this fact? He jumped out in the Stratosphere, but what did he really accomplish? Nothing, actually.

He put his life in danger for no other purpose than being the new world-record holder.

Some may argue that he made science progress.

But that is not true.

No useful scientific data has been collected from this jump.

It is a mindless attempt at being known.

Also, couldn't we say that the so called “hero” is just a paw of the marketing plan of Red-Bull? I have the feeling that we saw more advertising for the energy drink than skydiving, and where I should have heard the sound of progress, I heard the sound of an opening red-bull can.

So can we actually talk about a hero where there actually only is marketing and pursuing selfish goals? I have the feel we can not.. »