Heroes and cowards

Warning. Incoming philosophical rant.

Here's my claim of today; heroes are a society's cannon fodder, while cowards are important members of the society.

Let's think what being a hero means. A hero is one who is always protecting the small and weak, or the whole society. A hero is a person who will stop a bullet from hitting an old man by jumping on it's way, a hero is a person who fight against the enemy of his or her society. A hero is a person who is willing to give his life for greater good.

There are some genetic heroism in all of us. A man will protect his wife with his life, and men usually fight in the army. This is solely because women are more important to the society than men. It's always better to have 20 women and 5 men in the society, than having 20 men and 5 women. Because women are baby makers. One man can breed with thousands of women in his life, and have many babies. Women can breed with many men too, but they can only have so and so many babies. But this is all normal. Women take care of the children, that's their genetic job. Man's genetic job is to protect them both. So, when im speaking of heroes, im no talking about this genetic heroism.

Now let's think what kind of person a hero would be. A hero would have to have certain psychological and enviromental conditions. To protect the whole society, the hero wouldn't have a family. Otherwise the genetic heroism would kick in. A hero's job is to protect the weak, so he can't have any other job. The hero would probably feel rootless, out of place. We all want to have a place in the world, so hero tries to earn this place as a protector. You ain't a hero if you make your own rules and ideals of good and evil. A hero would have to follow the society's rules and ideals of good and evil. He or she would be a brainless zombie, a puppet, controlled by the society. Of course, he's willing to give his life for the society's ideals, otherwise wouldn't be a hero. He'd be a coward. Heroes are usually men, like in the movies. This is because they ain't baby makers.

Now, let's imagine the following scene. There's a bad guy, an enemy of the society, aiming his gun at a coward, say, an old and poor farmer. The bad guy has only one bullet in his gun. There are many others around them, who are too afraid to do anything. The farmer is a coward, he doesn't want to die. So, he calls out for the hero! And there he comes! The bad guy sees this, and fires his weapon at the farmer. Without hestitation, the hero jumps infront of the bullet, and dies. The bad guy doesn't have anymore bullets, so he flees.

Now let's rewind to the moment when the hero decides to jump infront of the bullet. What the hell is going on this guy's mind? It's a poor, very old man without any family, nobody would care if he died! The only logical explanation is that the hero feels that the old poor farmer is more important to the society than he is. Although he's old and poor, and would probably die tommorrow anyway. It's the hero's job to protect the old and poor, right? That's what the heroes are for! So even the old and poor wouldn't feel like the carbage of the society, because they know that there's always someone below them... The hero himself. That's why everybody likes heroes.

But how come the others around the farmer and killer didn't do anything? Because they're cowards. Because they are wise and they know that they're more important than the old farmer. No way that say, a businessman would save the farmer. Or a mother of five. Those are important members of the society. But the hero isn't. He's the human shield, easily controlled idiot. A replacable machine.