Thursday, February 25, 2010

We Don't Need Another Hero...

The development of heroes is somewhat natural, but we don't need any more. A hero is a person who is excellent in the eyes of the general population. But this doesn't necessarily make the hero virtuous. A hero could easily have faults that the general population doesn't know about. Also, although it is questionable whether a hero has actually achieved happiness (whether in current terms or Aristotle's terms), the first heroes had no model hero that they emulated. They earned virtue of their own means.... no need for a hero.

If the people follow a hero who appears to have almost "superhuman" capabilities, they may never find the drive to reach their own fullest potential. If they believe they will never reach the level of virtue of their hero, the people may just give up on achieving virtue altogether. If a person believes a hero will always be there to save him, he may never worry about his own personal and moral responsibility.