What Makes a Hero?

When you hear the word hero, what comes to mind?  According to Webster’s Dictionary, a hero is, “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.”, but this is different from how Webster’s first edition defined the word in 1828.  Back in those days, a hero was, “a man of distinguished valor, intrepidity, or enterprise in danger.”  A secondary definition in that edition was, “In pagan mythology, an illustrious person, mortal indeed, but supposed by the populace to partake of immortality, and after his death to be placed among the gods.”  So, over some 189 years, depending on how you define it, our heroes have gone from men who enterprise in danger and pagans, to good people who do outstanding things. 

This is curious to me.  By definition, our ancestors’ heroes used to be people who risked their lives either in war, law enforcement, exploration, or other dangerous activities. Now, American media outlets often refer to sports figures, movie stars, or even dogs as heroes.  This got me wondering whether the modern definition of the word has more to do with a lack of exposure to real heroes, or whether people are just more open minded about what defines heroic behavior?  Perhaps more importantly, from an Averagist’s perspective, do people in Middle America have a different concept of what makes a hero than others?

To find out I used a complex research methodology that’s been perfected over 2000 years; we asked people what they think.  Our group consisted of four people, Steve from Tennessee, JD from Georgia, Keefe who was born and raised in San Francisco but who now lives in West Virginia, and Kelly who resides just outside San Diego, California.  Two of the individuals self-identified as liberal, one conservative, and one libertarian.