We used to call everyone a hero. Bondi taught us the word's real price |
For too long we have permitted the word "hero" to be traded as cheap currency in the marketplace of modern life.
Login or signup to continue reading
We bestow it with nauseating regularity on those who can kick a ball further than the rest of us, or play on with a corked thigh. We award it to celebrities who establish charitable foundations in their name to enhance their virtuous image. We even confer it on entrepreneurs who risk little except other people's capital.
In our desperate rush to celebrate everything we have hollowed out a word that once described the pinnacle of human conduct until it means nothing. Until last Sunday evening at Bondi, that is, when one of the most battered and bruised words in the language suddenly regained its weight.
You've undoubtedly seen the video of Ahmed al Ahmed, the Syrian-born greengrocer who chose not to seek shelter behind parked cars but use them as a tactical approach to confront and disarm one of the terrorists. You've heard about Alex Kleytman, the 87-year-old Holocaust survivor who, having experienced the worst of the 20th century, was shot dead while shielding his wife. And what about Boris Gurman and his wife Sofia, the local couple callously executed after wrestling with one of the gunmen?
Those who confronted the demented father and son pair carrying out the carnage at Bondi did not have time to weigh consequences or imagine how it might end. They had no audience, no certainty of success, no guarantee their actions would be remembered or rewarded with likes on social media.
They simply decided that the lives of others were more important than their own.
If that is the true definition of heroism, it's also an unsettling one. Because once we have witnessed it we are forced to ask ourselves an uncomfortable question: would I have done the same?
Most of us prefer to believe we would. We all fantasise about situations - in relationships, at work or on the sporting field - where we rise to the occasion, triumph over extreme pressure and are hailed as heroes.
But psychology is not sentimental. When confronted with chaos and physical threat the overwhelming majority of us flee, freeze or hide. We saw this in the often shaky video footage at Bondi as hundreds sprinted across the beach toward safety, instinct kicking in as the human nervous system reverted to its........