Heroes of a Different Kind

Activist Heroes

By Sande Rose Waybill

Tibet has produced two very different kinds of hero during the past 60 years. Formerly, the main hero figure for many Tibetans was H.H.D.L. – the Dalai Lama who won the Nobel peace prize and who is currently in exile. Many Tibetans and followers of Buddhism from around the world look upon the Dalai Lama as a role model and knowledgeable advisor — two attributes of a successful hero.  However, in 2011 predominantly, a new type of hero has emerged from Tibet; one of lesser official standing, yet equal in courage.

Throughout 2011, roughly 22 Tibetans set fire to themselves with the purpose of drawing attention to their nations’ predicament.  The majority of these self-immolators were young monks, nuns, and former monks.  They were desperate to get the world’s attention turned upon the continuing suffering within their country, with little thought to their own well-being. They have faced pain, death, and the possibility of Chinese mistreatment — yet they stood up bravely and heroically for their cause.

Since the Chinese invaded Tibet in the 1950’s, disruptions have continued within the nation. Lay Tibetans are no longer free to practice their religion or culture in peace and safety. Monks and nuns are not free to pray, practice, and study, but are forced to renounce their leader HHDL and endure re-education programs and other forms of ‘patriotic’ instruction. One can be punished, jailed, tortured, or even killed just for adhering to what one believes, if the Chinese do not approve.

After more than half a century of suffering, some courageous Tibetans have stepped forward and self immolated — shouting out their hopes and needs as they do so. Hoping that this will bring action from the outside world, they face the threat of death, willingly. If they are saved from the flames, the Chinese are known to treat them as if they were criminals; they beat them as punishment and prevent onlookers from offering assistance. Many self-immolators are now deceased, while some are hospitalized or imprisoned.

Yet still these brave heroes are stepping forward at a rate of more than one a month.  These Tibetans have fought their own selves to shout out for their country, family and friends, culture, religion, and their freedom.  Their actions are a form of altruistic suicide, intended to better the common good.  These individuals put aside their own comfort and safety to stand up for what they believe in — hoping that the world outside will hear and act.

Here are the names and current condition of those self-immolators now belonging in the ranks of Tibetan heroes.

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Born in the mid-sixties, Sande Rose Waybill returned to England after experiencing more than 20 years of Australian life. Formerly a gardener, nurse, saleswoman, creche care worker, nude model, home schooling mom, and freelance writer/photographer, she now cares FT for an elderly parent whilst still blogging. Her interests include ornithology, Buddhist philosophy & practice, Yoga, Indian cuisine, and the music scene in San Francisco. She likes to indulge in incense, red wine, meditation and reading.

Superman’s Song: Transfiguring a Superhero

Superheroes

By Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals

It actually seems strange that so few of our blogs here have been devoted to superheroes.  By definition, they are the perfect representation of the way people think about heroes.  They have all the key personal attributes.  In our book, we reported the traits that research participants used to describe heroes.  We called them the Great Eight.  And Superman, the quintessential superhero, illustrates them better than almost anyone.  The “Man of Steel” who “fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way” is Strong, Smart, Selfless, Caring, Charismatic, Resilient, Reliable and Inspiring.  Perhaps Superman’s most obvious heroic characteristic is Strong, but he does pretty well on all the others.

So it would seem that there would be little need to embellish the myth further, and make Superman a Transfigured Hero.  Yet one of the most interesting recent portrayals of Superman does exactly that.  In the 1991 music video by the band Crash Test Dummies, Superman’s Song is a dirge sung at the Man of Steel’s funeral, with some aging superheroes in attendance.  One of them appears to be a slightly overweight, middle-aged Wonder Woman and another might be an elderly Green Lantern.

The song’s chorus emphasizes Superman’s selflessness:  “Superman never made any money, for saving the world from Solomon Grundy.”  That characterization is not particularly new.   But a twist on the selflessness theme suggests that Superman had to overcome temptations to stay on the straight and narrow.  Heroic narratives recount the ways our heroes struggle to overcome obstacles, both internal and external.  There weren’t many external obstacles that really tested Superman, but resisting such deadly sins as Greed and Sloth suggests overcoming internal ones.

Regarding greed, the song claims that Superman “had a real job, even though he could have smashed through any bank in the United States, he had the strength, but he would not.”  Regarding sloth, we hear “sometimes when Supe was stopping crimes, I’ll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back on man.”  But not Superman.  He “stayed in the city, kept on changing clothes in dirty old phone booths €˜til his work was through.”

But the most interesting element of the song presents Superman as a refined gentlemen, in great contrast to another fictional hero, the crude Tarzan.  After lyrics claiming that “Tarzan was no ladies’ man” and that he would just “scoop €˜em up under his arm like that, quick as a cat,” we hear:  “Clark Kent, now there was a real gent.”  While the King of the Jungle “could hardly string together four words, I Tarzan, You Jane,” Superman “would not be caught sittin’ around in no junglescape, dumb as an ape, doing nothing.”

Thus this song not only mourns the death of Superman – “the world will never see another man like him” – but adds a new element to the narrative, one describing a cool, kind, sensitive, almost feminist strong man, who though weary remains true to the “never-ending battle.”  While sometimes he considered escaping the pressure of being our rock solid superhero, to “join Tarzan in the forest,” he stayed Resilient and Reliable to the end.  No wonder he is so Inspiring.  And a real gentleman to boot.

Below is a clip of the Crash Test Dummies video of  Superman’s Song.

Joseph Campbell: The Man Who Wrote The Book on Heroes

Science Heroes

Joseph CampbellBy Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals

Ironically, the first published psychological analysis of heroism wasn’t completed by a psychologist.  In 1949, Joseph Campbell, a comparative mythologist who studied medieval literature and world religions, wrote a remarkable book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces.  The volume became one of the most widely read and influential books of the 20th century.

While studying hero myths from around the world, Campbell noticed a distinct pattern.  It didn’t matter where or when a particular myth was created; the world’s hero stories were all strikingly similar to one another.  According to Campbell, in these stories “a hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”  Campbell proposed that this prototypical heroic journey, which he called the hero monomyth, consists of three parts: departure, initiation, and return.

The departure phase involves the forces that set the hero’s journey in motion.  The hero is thrown from the safety and comfort of the familiar world into a dark, dangerous place.  Joseph CampbellOften a guide or a sidekick offers assistance.  The initiation stage features a series of tests or challenges that the hero must overcome.  Temptations of the flesh, or a battle with a father figure who must be vanquished, are quite common.  Upon returning, the hero brings a great boon, or benefit, to the world.  Not only is the returned hero forever transformed, so is the society that receives the boon.

In The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Campbell discusses the psychological importance of the hero’s path.  He argues that the hero’s journey is a metaphor for the human experience.  All people undergo painful struggles and must muster the strength and cleverness to overcome adversaries and difficult circumstances.  The struggle defines us because it allows us to realize our full potential via triumphant redemption. “The adventure of the hero is the adventure of being alive,” noted Campbell.  “It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.  HerculesWhere you stumble, there lies your treasure. Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.”

Campbell suggests that we identify strongly with the hero story because it taps into an important part of our collective unconscious.  First described by psychoanalyst Carl Jung in 1916, the collective unconscious is a storehouse of latent images that have developed through human evolution.  Jung called these latent images archetypes, which can be activated, or made conscious, when something in an individual’s experience resembles the image.  Archetypes are based on our collective experience over the course of evolution, rather than individual experience.  Jung wrote, “There are as many archetypes as there are typical situations in life.  Endless repetition has engraved these experiences into our psychic constitution.”

The hero archetype, then, can explain the pervasiveness of the hero monomyth found in human societies across time and geography.  Human beings, in effect, may have a biological readiness to encounter heroes and to resonate to hero stories that fit the Campbellian monomythic structure.  George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, admits that he based the characters and plot of Star Wars on the hero monomythic structure he encountered in The Hero With a Thousand Faces.   Disney movies such as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King are said to have been influenced by Campbell.  Musical artists such as Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead have all produced work based on Campbell’s hero monomyth.

For his enduring impact on the way we think about human experience and the hero’s journey, Joseph Campbell is one of our intellectual heroes.

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Do you have a hero that you would like us to profile?  Please send your suggestions to Scott T. Allison (sallison@richmond.edu) or to George R. Goethals (ggoethal@richmond.edu).

 

Why Our Mothers are Our Heroes

Unsung Heroes

clip_image006.jpgBy Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals

Each year we celebrate Mother’s Day, and this reminds us of the results of a study we conducted recently that underscored the importance of family members as heroes.  In the study, people of all ages and from all walks of life were asked to list their heroes.  We were surprised, yet pleased, to see that family members were listed about a third of the time.  Most importantly, one fourth of all people listed their mothers as their hero.  Mothers were mentioned more than any other person, including fathers.

Mother’s Day became a nationally recognized holiday in 1914 because of the efforts of Anna Jarvis, a West Virginian who campaigned to honor mothers after her own beloved mother passed away in 1905.  Ironically, by the 1920s Jarvis became disenchanted with the commercialization of Mother’s Day and began campaigning against the holiday.  Anna JarvisStill, we believe her initial sentiment was on target and we applaud the opportunity to recognize the heroic qualities of mothers everywhere.

Many highly accomplished individuals are quick to attribute their success to their mothers.  American presidents are especially likely to do so.  Abraham Lincoln once noted that “all that I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.”  George Washington also observed that “all I am I owe to my mother.  I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”  Andrew Jackson claimed that “there never was a woman like my mother.  She was as gentle as a dove and as brave as a lioness.”

Other celebrities also express their indebtedness to their mothers.  Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong once said, “My mother gave me more than any teacher or father figure ever had.”  With these words, Armstrong identified the precise reason why so many of us view our mothers as heroes.  It’s all about the loving generosity of mothers.  When the participants in our study were asked why their mothers were heroic, they generated three main reasons:  generosity with time, money, and love.

There are many ways that mothers gave their time to us.  According to survey respondents, mothers tended to us when we were sick, accompanied us to school and soccer practice, made us dinner, and read stories to us.  Our mothers made financial sacrifices, too.  They wore old clothes so that we could wear new clothes; they took on part-time jobs to buy us gifts; they saved money for us to attend college; mothers_day_cake.jpgthey gave us our weekly allowance; and they made sure we had food on the table.

But the most important quality that distinguishes mothers from other heroes, including fathers, is the free offering of love that mothers give us.  Mothers were there for us when we needed emotional support.  Mothers hugged us.  They comforted us and let us sit on their laps.  They kissed us on our cheeks before school and at bedtime at night.

Why are mothers viewed as so heroically loving?  There are at least two reasons.  First, research has shown that women tend to be more likely than men to possess communal traits such as lovingness, affection, warmth, and nurturance.  These communal traits are highly valued in the context of raising children and are associated with morality and goodness.  Second, it is well known that during childhood, mothers are our primary attachment figures.  They are more likely than fathers to interact with, and bond with, infants.  Our society is no doubt evolving toward fathers having more communal traits and showing more attachment behaviors, but mothers still hold the edge.

And so on this Mother’s Day, we’d like to acknowledge and thank Anna Jarvis and all the women who have given so much to us all.  We wish everyone the happiest of Mother’s Days!

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Do you have a hero that you would like us to profile?  Please send your suggestions to Scott T. Allison (sallison@richmond.edu) or to George R. Goethals (ggoethal@richmond.edu).

 

Oprah Winfrey: The Hero with Talent, Resilience, and Charisma

Celebrity Heroes

Oops!  We had to remove the hero profile you’re looking for because it will soon appear in our new book Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals, to be published by Routledge in 2013.

Our contract at Routledge required us to remove many of our profiles on our blog at this time.  But we do have other hero profiles and information about heroes on the menu bar located on the right side of this page.  Check it out!

In the mean time, please accept our apologies.  Here is more information about our new book.

You can click here to return to our HERO home page.  And thanks for visiting!

— Scott Allison and George Goethals

Marie Curie: Trailblazing Scientist Who Paid the Ultimate Price

Science Heroes

Oops!  We had to remove the hero profile you’re looking for because it will soon appear in our new book Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals, to be published by Routledge in 2013.

Our contract at Routledge required us to remove many of our profiles on our blog at this time.  But we do have other hero profiles and information about heroes on the menu bar located on the right side of this page.  Check it out!

In the mean time, please accept our apologies.  Here is more information about our new book.

You can click here to return to our HERO home page.  And thanks for visiting!

— Scott Allison and George Goethals