The future of heroism

Heroism has traditionally been seen as a moral category. One of the author's dictionaries defines a hero as a man of distinguished courage or ability admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. One difficulty with that definition is that it allows little by way of anticipation until the occasion for heroism has occurred, since they have no generally agreed on means of assessing beforehand, bravery or noble qualities. The recent report by the UK's Center for Defense Analysis sheds some informing light on the first category of heroism, by doing some fresh analysis on anti-tank combat as well as drawing upon earlier research on battle heroism. They dealt only with the category of heroes as recognized by various high-level awards such as the Victoria Cross. Unfortunately the prospects for recognizing honoring, and emulating the heroes of their society are not bright so long as they only associate the good things of their society with companies and organizations.