Microhome Assignment – Unflattening Heroism

Microhome Assignment – Unflattening Heroism

Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo in their article “A Prisoner in the House” show how we are all capable of everyday heroism. They argued many heroes are like evildoers.  They acted that way because of the situation they were in.  They explain different way to show what is heroism; what makes a hero and how to nurture the heroic imagination. The prison and student-teacher experiments showed how a situation can change peoples’ behaviors, Thesis that some people believe is that people act “good” only because they have never been coerced or seduced to do “bad”. What about the observers of evil but who do nothing to stop it. We focus on the evil doers, and not on the silent majority who observe or who are aware of the evil. heroism could have the same theory. That it is the situation, and not the person, that creates the hero.  And like the silent majority to evil, there is a silent majority to heroism, since they assume others will handle the emergency, so they do not have to act. Heroism entails a potential for deep personal sacrifice, including sacrificing their own life. Social heroism versus physical heroism. We must be able to imagine ourselves as heroes to develop a heroic mentality.  Before reading this article, I accepted society’s new definition of heroism which labels someone a hero because of their skill or abilities, but not because of any super-action they took. I found reading stories of actual heroes very meaningful since it reminded me that society needs heroes like these people all the time. I lost the writers when they tried to describe characteristics of heroes and how to develop a new hero culture.  I do not believe heroism can be taught.

Andrea Kuszewski, in her article” Addicted to Being Good” argues that heroes and sociopaths have the similar genetic makeup.  Their personalities are very similar. Link between altruistic personality and sociopath personality. Personality has been shown to be heredity.  Similar genes for altruistic and sociopath. Many heroes break the rules to be a hero.  The firefighters on 9/11.  Many heroes are compulsive.  They must act.  They believe they have no choice. Both heroes and sociopaths have common traits: Low impulse control; High novelty seeking; No remorse for their actions and Willing to break rules. Hero has too much empathy for others, thereby taking extreme risks or breaking the rules. Heroes can be considered criminals because they often break rules (laws). I never considered heroism to be inherited while I believed sociopathy is inherited. The most meaningful part of the article when he compared the personality traits of the hero with the sociopath. I thought is somewhat unrealistic to think society could have two sets of rules: one for the hero and one for the sociopath.

According to Nick Sousanis, we gain a deeper understanding of a something when we can look at it from multiple perspectives at the same time. From my perspective, Franco and Zimbardo both argued that personal integrity plays a pivotal role when someone is placed in situation calling for action.  Kuszewski’s argument that heroes and sociopaths have very similar genetic backgrounds. So maybe there is some genetic pre-disposition to integrity.  Even sociopaths have a strong integrity.  However, their integrity is self-centered on themselves.  Whereas heroes’ integrity is centered on others. My understanding of heroism has changed.  I now believe that people are born with a pre-disposition to be heroes should the situation confront them.