The Creation Of World Heroes

My buddy Gerry Sigurdson and I pulled out of the Canex here on base. Johnny Cash's "Hurt" softly played through my car speakers."Now that is one man I would like to meet," I said. "More so then any other musician out there, I want to shake the hand of Johnny Cash."We talked a bit more. I said, "he is a real hero.""He is," Gerry confirmed."We don't have any more like him. I don't know any more real musical heroes like Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.""You mean like any other musicians that touched so many people all over the world like Cash and Elvis?" Gerry asked.I stopped at a red light, before turning right. "Ya, exactly like that. It seems like the chance for us to ever have heroes like that are gone. Music hasn't really changed in the last twenty odd years except for some technical advances. Oh, there is The Beatles too.""True, true," Gerry said.We continued talking about musical heroes, then I asked, "What happened to the heroes of today? It seems like we haven't had a hero in a long time."We talked about that question some more. After much discussion we came to the conclusion that Hero's are created when a great change is in the making. When new areas in land, thought, society, or any other element are pioneered.Think about it. When Europe went through great changes, and society, and new countries where conquered and pioneered, we end up with heroes. King Arthur was created when he pioneered the idea of just ruling and freedom of men. Richard the Lion Heart became a hero to Europeans during the crusades. Caesar became a hero to the roman people during his great conquests and expansion of the Roman Empire. Robin Hood became famous as he pioneered the rebellion against unfair leadership- whether he did this in a good or bad way remains debatable, but he has made it to today's story books.The idea of a hero doesn't mean the hero is necessarily a good person. It means the hero has made it into the stories that are passed on from person to person. It lets us to wonder more about who they are. We research them, we want to know more about them. King Arthur was thought to be a man who wielded a magical sword and had a real wizard named Merlin who taught him how to be a good king. He pulled his sword from a stone, or retrieved it from a lady in the water.We all know now that is far from the truth. He was just a good man, but his deeds led people to widely exaggerate the stories until we have what we do today.Lets look to more recent days. When the American West was being pioneered, we get heroes like the bandits Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, and Sundance Kid. These famous bandits are the heroes in many western stories. Why? They weren't good people.They were bandits, they took advantage of a lawless society while the United States was in development. But they came to be heroes during a time of pioneering. They pioneered the bandit society of the time. From them, many others rose, but they didn't reach the lime light, as the original notorious bandits had already stole it.American West crime had been pioneered but later during 1930's 40's and 50's crime once again was pioneered and from that rose Al Capone, John Gotti, Lucky Luciano, and Frank Costello. Since then, though, crime has not really evolved in theory, but rather in technical means.From the new land that needed discovering, and frontiers to conquest, we get heroes like Paul Bunyan, Daniel Boon, and Davy Crockett. All these men have stories told about them that are greatly exaggerated, but none the less, these where real people who helped conquer the frontier, and pioneered their way to becoming heroes for the rest of our species existence.When entertainment was pioneered during the history of man, we recognize heroes such as William Shakespeare, Buffalo Bill, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas. Other musical heroes that will never be forgotten are Mozart, Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus. Famous writers such as Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen, J.R.R. Tolkien will forever be in the hearts of people forever.You can look at great religious change and you get the heroes from the bible: Jesus, Moses, Noah, Adam and Eve. These are the most known heroes from the bible, as they did the greatest things that passed down until today. If you ask any person out there to name of somebody from the bible, these five people will be the most mentioned.What Gerry and myself realized is that it is the pioneering of new areas that heroes arise. The music industry was pioneered and from it arose The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley. Unless somebody is able to pioneer music again, we may never have another great musical hero ever again. Land was pioneered and discovered and we get Christopher Columbus and his stories of mutiny and the battle of sea monsters. Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, King Arthur and his Magic Sword.If this world desires a new hero we have to be prepared for a drastic change. What Gerry mentioned to me was that maybe today, because we are all so connected by phone, internet, and email, that maybe if somebody pioneers a new area in science, society, ideas, or art, that we don't see it as something special. We know about it as soon as it happens, right from the source, or very close.These people who do something amazing will never be seen as world heroes because their stories never get a chance to be exaggerated as the story is passed on ear to ear. It's broadcasted to the world instantly. The story fades faster, and is eventually forgotten. Famous people from the 80's are almost forgotten today. Today's famous actors will be forgotten in twenty more years.This world is in want for a hero for lack of a global change. Maybe in the future we will have a global change. But will that global change be good or bad?