Facing down ones doom and performing the job that is in front of you even in the face of inevitable death--as Aloysha pointed out this is truly heroic. Yet, I found the fact that he used Hector in his comparison very interesting. While Hector does die heroic in battle he is from a world where that is not necessarily the norm for heroes. It is so full of gods and demi-gods that death is not necessarily a certainty. Even Hector's adversary, while not invincible, did not have the same vulnerability as a normal man. These heroes though are usually tragically flawed--Ajax tried to slay his comrades, the Greek leaders, and then eventually kills himself, Hercules in a fit of rage and madness killed his wife and sons. This madness is always tied to their superhuman strength or power--the thing that makes them a hero.
It is when heroes are removed from people, when they no longer see themselves as being on the same plane as the rest of humanity that the dark side of heroes emerges. Sometimes, like Ajax and Hercules, in their rage or madness the hero sinks to the level of a villain. However, often times the supposed hero will elevate themselves in their minds to the level of a god. They stop seeing humanity as people, a individuals with their own hopes and fears and desires, and the ingenuity to shape their own destinies. Instead they view humanity as a puzzle, something to fix.
When seeing Watchmen this past weekend that was one of the most striking par
ts. Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) believes that he and he alone can prevent nuclear Holocaust and that this is his mission. He views this not as pride and arrogance but as a type of martyrdom saying he made himself suffer with every death he caused, to feel their pain. He is above the ranks of men, being "the smartest man alive" and styles himself as a modern Alexander the Great. It is from this belief that he feels justified making the decision to kill millions of people in order to trick them, thus staving off the possibility that billions don't die. The comic does a good job of showing where this logic leads and just how twisted it can be. The movie, however, fails to pass judgement on Adrian. Dr. Manhattan ends up agreeing with his logic while Dan and Laurie never come down strongly on either side, believing instead that the issue is to big for them and so the decision should be left up to someone like Adrian--a hero. Without the "Tales of the Black Freighter" it is only Rorschach who condemns Adrian's actions, and by that time his moral compass has been called into serious question. I think that is was a problem with adapting the comic for a movie and having to cut parts, but it made me really wonder if people viewed it as ok for a "hero" to play god? Or was that assumed in the definition of a hero that the producer/director/writer didn't notice that they were cutting this important discussion out? The more I see heroes portrayed as bordering on gods, as beings with the power if not the right to decide the futures of those around them, the more amazing the Incarnation seems. Instead of being sent a savior akin to a hero in tights and a cape who would sweep in make a better world, humans were sent someone who was fully human. Instead of being forced or tricked into salvation, or suffering from a hero's madness, or being tempted to the level of heroes our self, fulfilling man's ancient desire to "be like gods," we were met by someone fully human, someone who wept and got tired, and offered us a choice. As JP II said in Redemptor Hominis "Human nature, by the very fact that it was assumed, not absorbed, in him, has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare. For by his Incarnation, he, the son of God, in a certain way united himself with each man."
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