The Heroism Trap

Posted on June 25, 2004 in Crosstalk Human Rights

A free man’s defense depends on his willingness to kill the Hero within himself in order to be able to reject it in others.

–John Ralston Saul

Jeremy mentioned a recent CNN poll which found that 60% of Americans favor torture. I suspect that the underlying reason for the result is the “you can save the world trap” which has been used by military organizations to convince marginal war resisters that they really do want to become cannon fodder through much of this century.

The way it works is like this: the propagandist puts forward the premise that the conflict is larger than it really is. “You can save a city, you can save millions of lives, you can save a country, you can save the world. So, under those conditions, would you torture this one man?” And most people, flattered to receive more power than even the pretender in the White House, say “Yes.”

There’s a simple way out of the trap: reject the model. Refuse to believe that all the ways have been tried because, historically, military models deny that any other means is effective. Military models require absolutism — in their control, in their execution, in their expectations of support — and the world is far from absolute.

Both terrorists and militarist share an addiction to the heroism myth. They strive, for whatever reasons, to inflate their importance. They are the egotists which many who have turned to the Republican Party claim to reject. It is time to realize that though each of us is worthy of dignity — that because each of us is worthy of dignity — we must not succumb to the false belief that we alone can save the world nor ascribe that power to any other human being. This is a call for courage, the courage to listen and negotiate, to work things through nonviolently. To look into the eye of the propagandist and say “I do not buy your dignity-eroding approach. I do not accept you as a creator of heroes.” And live your life without succumbing to joylessness or fear. In this way, you will become a champion of human dignity, a fully realized human being.