One of the stories that has gotten tremendous coverage around the world, but has tended to get short-shrift due to the inauguration, is that of the miraculous ditching of a passenger jet in New York’s Hudson River. One fine example is this article from Germany – which extols heroism and describes how one can spot true heroism by praising the pilot who pulled off the crash-landing and a 60-year-old surgeon that President Bush mentioned in his farewell address.
Comparing the two men to, among others, Hermann of the Germanic tribe the Cherusci, who annihilated three Roman legions in 8 AD, Josef Joffe writes for Germany’s Die Zeit that despite rumors to the contrary, heroism and patriotism in our ‘Postmodern’ world – are not dead:
“Today there is no Theseus, who slew the Minotaur, or a Perseus, who killed Medusa. But there is Chesley Sullenberger, the USAir Captain who managed the nearly impossible: the forced landing of a passenger jet on hard-as-concrete water. He saved 155 lives due to his perfect professionalism. But skill alone does not make a hero. For that the pilot had to rise to the occasion, for in the tradition of ‘women and children,’ he was the last to disembark after twice having scanned the cabin for injured. … It is questioned that such virtue – assuming responsibility for the weak at risk to oneself – also exists in Postmodernism. Two contemporary phenomena offer evidence that it does.”
By Josef Joffe
Translated By Jonathan Lobsien
January 23, 2009
Germany – Die Zeit – Original Article (German)
Why, in the times of me-me-me, we too love heroes
What is a hero? He is a Herrmann, who defeated an entire Roman army in the Teutoburg Forest [9 AD ]. Or a Heracles [Hercules to the Romans], a real Mr. Clean who cleared out the Augean Stables [Greek mythology says that these stables housed the single greatest number of cattle in Greece and had never been cleaned]. Even Paris counts as a hero, although he is just the best known robber of a woman in history [The King of Troy’s son, Paris is said to have stolen the wife of Spartan King Menelaus]. Essentially, heroes are characterized by the gifts that empower them to do mighty deeds, whereby they demonstrate courage and power to the point of self-denial, indeed – even self destruction.
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