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Thursday, August 09, 2012
Acts of heroism
I feel terribly sad about the seeming loss of three lives in New Plymouth yesterday. When you have a child who could easily fit the bill it hits home more sharply perhaps? But there is something I wanted to say. While it may have been the wrong, and eventually tragic call to climb yesterday, the instructor lost his life trying to save the boys. It reminds me of the teacher in the Mangatepopo Gorge tragedy, who strapped one of the youngsters to his back but neither made it out. Makes me weep.
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4 comments:
Rule no 1. Never go into the water.
Rule no 2. refer to rule no 1.
you can never beat the water.
I wrote a blog after the Pike Rover disaster about the lack of heroism in today's health & safety-conscious world. The first rescuers at Pike River wanted to go in to the mine but were prevented from doing so. Who knows what might have been if they had been allowed to go in? Perhaps there would have been more deaths but maybe they would have been able to rescue one or two of the victims. We'll never know.
It's ironic that at a time when we claim to be such an altruistic society, we are often unable to make the real sacrifice that heroism entails. In one of her books, Ayn Rand explained that heroism is all about enlightened self-interest and perhaps that explains the paradox.
Whatever the motivation, I am glad to see that in New Plymouth at least, heroism is not dead.
Here's a thought Kiwiwit, it's partly becuase our culture has devolved to try and manage risk to the extreme (like OSH), to protect ourselves from any possible harm (like in kids' playgrounds)and self-interest what's in it for me too often obscures the potential to help another. Initiative is too often eradicated by overly managed managers or control-freaks in uniforms.
A number of years ago, a man who was a non-swimmer jumped off a pier to rescue a child who was in trouble in the water. When asked why he had done it, given that he was terrified of deep water, he said " I would sooner be dead than let a child die if I did nothing."
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