Cohen, Roger. “Active Fatalism.” The New York Times, 24 Oct. 2014. In this article, Roge Cohn talks about how society has the idea of what a “hero” is wrong. We forget about the men and women doing their often menial jobs day after day. He says the our idea of a hero is one who does this huge act of kindness to save the lives of many. He’s not interested in the celebrities as role models …show more content…
The first major type of hero he talks about is the Renaissance hero. They came after the Middle Ages “religious heros”, the missionaries, martyrs, and priests. They emphasized man’s capacity, and greatness, human values, and capabilities. Their idea of a hero was a manly man who was proficient in warfare, scholarship ,government, literature, and even the art of love. Machiavelli flipped the Renaissance idea. His idea of heroes would rather be feared than loved. They practiced cruelty rather than charity. The next type of hero were the original hippies, the hero of Romanticism. The idea of a well-rounded Renaissance person falls out of style. Instead of being strong, smart, and political, this hero celebrated the inner emotions and creative development of the human spirit. They believed in man’s natural goodness and the call of individuals to develop their personality to the full.Then, there’s the Victorian hero which emphasized technology. What they had could not be taught. They were born a hero, like demigods. Next, there’s the quiet hero of the 19th century. “Where the Renaissance hero achieved greatness in battle and the Romantic hero turned his back on society, the 19th-century hero quietly did his duty.” “The earnest unpublicized work of those who provided people with their basic needs was now considered heroic.” Meaning, anybody who provide the needs to keep people alive. For example, your parents, police officers, firefighters, etc. These people do things to save lives but they don’t boast about what they do. Then , there’s the 20th century hero who were small heros . Lastly, there’s the multicultural media age hero. This is the “decent human being” and what they did is very remembered. They are the celebrities who used their fame to help their home, or the people who fight for the rights of their kind. For example, Martin Luther