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When
Victims are Heros, what to say of genuine acts of heroism? No doubt an unpopular view in the aftermath of 911, but Nicholas Thompson ask an important question:
When we put every victim of tragedy on a pedestal, what are we looking up to?
Hero Inflation, the title of his article in the Globe, is yet another manifestation of the extremes-orientation of our society. No hero is too small in the quest for aggrandizement, and no issue too big in how small it is made in the exploitation of its value. Quiet memorials mushroom into 24/7 TV coverage of grief, the solemn intonement of 3000 names to be harshly followed by appeals by lawyers and victim foundations at the ready to squeeze every penny necessary to assuage the suffering of those that did not die. Is public display of grief and empathy more potent, closer to the heart? qui bono? Apart from lawyers, media, and self-serving politicos willing to carry the torch, the winner is perhaps the oldest shadow warrior, the ego.
