What defines a real hero; how and why standards vary.

In this queer age of widespread systematic deceit, critical thinking is an essential survival skill.

Large scale national conflicts and stresses often cause fascinating, and sometimes troubling, trends, schemes and flaws to float to the surface. The Wuhan Coronavirus has revealed a number of social, cultural and ideological disorders in our society. One of these escapes notice in ordinary circumstances, but these are unusual days.
   
The nationwide COVID19 shutdown and the resulting reduction of human activity leave news networks with fewer crimes and tragedies to report and distort.

News directors invariably seek to grab viewers’ attention quickly, opening with breaking, shocking, or earth-shattering announcements. Next, they move on to the perfunctory smearing of President Trump, Republicans, the Church or one of their many other ideological targets. But too much bad news wears on the minds of viewers. To mitigate this effect, an effort is made to leave the viewer with a positive human interest story that ostensibly celebrates a hometown hero and seals the deal.

Of course, this hero must always fit the template of liberal ideological criteria. Generally, to qualify as a media hero, a subject must be some sort of radical socialist or Democrat constituent. Celebrities, women, and minorities are favorites. Currently however, doctors, public school teachers, children, and especially, nurses fit the bill.

Are doctors and nurses really heroes? Doctors, nurses, and teachers are among the few groups of people who have been permitted to work during the shutdown. All are being paid handsomely and most have willingly accepted the risk versus reward structure that accompanies their professions.

A genuinely heroic act involves extraordinary personal sacrifice or risk of loss with little or no opportunity for personal gain. America produces many real heroes these days, but because by nature, they generally do not conform to media’s radical liberal template, you rarely hear of them.

The police officer who drags a mother and child out of a car crash or who rushes into an active shooter situation for less pay than a kindergarten teacher, will rarely be mentioned because he or she does not conform to the strict standard. But let him make a mistake (or appear to), and the same officer instantly becomes a national pariah. And military personnel? Forget about it. 

A pro-life ministry leader who helps to persuade a young woman to save her child from an abortionist’s barbaric tools will certainly be ignored by the pro-abortion media. And the parishioner who delivers food to shut-ins year-round as a volunteer for Meals-on-Wheels will not be featured on the nightly news. But a celebrity or Democrat politician who stands in the serving line for a few minutes at a local soup kitchen for a photo-op certainly will.

Why is this worth pointing out? Because, with the exception of the mentally-ill, no human being says or does anything apart from a motivation of gain. Publicity, personal pride, self-satisfaction, or the meeting of physical needs motivate people to do all kinds of things—some good, others not so much.

Leftists love symbolism because it costs very little compared to the hard work of personal involvement. Symbolism requires no accountability and very little risk. Leftists promote phony values like “making a difference” instead of making an improvement. “Social justice” supplants actual justice and ordinary people are deemed “heroes” only when they are cast from a bona fide liberal mold. 

Through abuse and overuse, liberalism destroys the very qualities its disciples profess to promote. When everyone is a hero, no one is. Likewise, when every child receives a participation trophy, every child loses. Self-esteem can be nurtured but cannot be imparted. Short-cuts to self-esteem building fail and result in the arrogance of entitlement we are now seeing. 

Just as it’s racist act to exclude one man because of his skin color, it’s equally racist to vote for another because of his. And, if it’s wrong to denigrate one woman because she’s a waitress or a housewife, it’s equally repugnant to deify her neighbor because she happens to be a nurse or public school teacher.
 
Radical socialist Democrats were soundly rejected in 2016 because the American people recognized that the devious ideology will doom us all. Since then, the United States has begun to come about from its long leftward drift. President Trump is a symbol of the Left’s defeat, thus, he’s beleaguered with baseless accusations, false implications of misconduct, and the subject of numerous fabricated scandals.

Each of us is rushing toward life’s finish line. Therefore, we must avoid going along with the herd, because the herd is usually stampeding toward the slaughterhouse.  Pascal said, “When everyone is moving towards depravity, no one seems to be moving, but if someone stops he shows up the others who are rushing on, by acting as a fixed point.”

Real heroes stand fast or reverse course when all others are running away. Then, they rush into danger with the resolve of Todd Beamer on United flight 93 during the September 11 hijacking who said, “Let’s roll” as he confronted the terrorists, saving innocent lives on the ground.

At that defining moment, heroes do not consider their own lives. They do not care that others are running away. They do not stop to consult a USA Today poll or the evening news to decide what is right. They heed the voice of God.