Comes The Dawn

23

THE AUTHENTIC HERO

The hero’s will is not that of his ancestors nor of his society, but his own. This will to be oneself is heroism.

—ORTEGA

History presents us with countless warrior heroes: Alexander the Great, the several Caesars, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini, on and on to the present day. Such “heroism” is rooted in brute force. And there are even more “heroes” by reason of fame, fortune, notoriety.

Interestingly, the exalted stature of such persons depends upon a boundless hero-worship by the masses. This is to say that the worshipers of these false gods are no less faulty than the self-styled gods who, when worshiped, worship themselves! What a perverse form of worship this is! As one sage observed, “Men are strangely inclined to worship what they do not understand.”

Ortega insisted that the hero’s will is not that of society—which the above assuredly is. What then is authentic heroism? The will to he oneself! Nor is our Spanish philosopher alone in this view:

• Emerson: Self-trust is the essence of heroism.

• Beecher: More heroism has been displayed in the household and the closet, than on the most memorable battlefields of history.

• Amiel: Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh.

• Spencer: Hero worship is strongest where there is the least regard for human freedom.

Emerson’s “self-trust” is evidenced by those who abide by their highest conscience. Seek truth from any and all sources and then never deviate from what is believed to be righteous. This is the will to be one’s own man, not everybody else’s—the will to be one’s self! What is heroic about such a demeanor? It takes an enormous amount of intellectual, moral, and spiritual fortitude—the opposite of brute force—to stand ramrod straight, as we say.

Beecher’s observation comes through to me as an ingenious aphorism. By “household and closet” he meant one’s inner sanctum—the mind. This is the place where real heroism is displayed, in contrast with the unreal heroism of the battlefield variety.

Amiel’s “triumph of the soul over the flesh” refers to the priority of righteousness over any pursuit of wealth or power. This is merely another way of phrasing that wonderful Biblical injunction: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and these things shall be added unto you.” Briefly, wealth flows as a dividend of authentic heroism. Reverse the admonition by first seeking wealth and there will be neither truth nor wealth. Morality is the wellspring of material things. It cannot be otherwise.

And, finally, the most important of all is Herbert Spencer’s truism: “Hero worship is strongest where there is the least regard for human liberty.” This is to say that the will to be oneself is weakest where and when liberty does not prevail.

Reflect on the U.S.S.R. or Red China where there is very little regard for human freedom. Hero worship is rampant, the masses kowtowing to the dictocrats. The will to be oneself? That takes courage. Fortunately, history reveals that there is an individual now and then who, regardless of how flagrant the dictatorship, has the will to be himself—Solzhenitsyn, for instance. Were it not for these rare souls who appear unpredictably, there would be no civilized society on this planet—only hero worshipers and the “heroes” worshiping themselves. In the absence of human freedom, there are few emerging, evolving human beings—humanity stagnated!

When government is limited to keeping the peace and invoking a common justice, human freedom prevails. Each individual is on his own; he is free to choose not only what he does but what he thinks or says or writes and, consequently, is self-responsible. A self-responsible person tends to be self-reliant for the simple reason that it is in his self-interest so to be.

It is seldom recognized that freedom is a magnetic force, exerting an attracting power on whatever potentialities there are, to bring them to realization. Freedom draws countless individuals to heights where men have never been before. Freedom spawns authentic heroes who, at the human level, are responsible for such material, intellectual, moral, and spiritual evolution as mankind experiences—the earthly origin of all progress!

All of us should do our level best to grasp several points that relate to progress:

• The enormous stake we have in human freedom.

• The rapid replacement of freedom by authoritarianism, that is, by the planned economy and the welfare state: socialism.

• The right diagnosis, so we may know where lies the fault and apply the corrective.

It is my conviction that Goethe correctly pointed to the fault:

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.

A vast majority of our countrymen today, if asked, “Are you a free man?” would respond, “Of course!” The extent of their enslavement doesn’t even dawn upon them.

We hear it said that Americans by the millions are deserting human freedom. This presupposes that they once understood and abided by its principles. People cannot desert that which they never possessed. And the millions, by and large, never had nor do they now have the slightest idea of what human freedom is all about. The citizenry were informed when our country was founded that they were free men and they relied on what they were told. Today? The dictocrats are telling them precisely the same thing and they believe the present-day jargon no less than most of our ancestors accepted the original truth. The masses of our day falsely believe that they are free men. So long as this naivete prevails, they are, as Goethe points out, “hopelessly enslaved.”

The fault mainfested all about us, by people in all walks of life—day laborers, businessmen, teachers, clergymen, professional men and women, or whoever—is falsely believing they are free in our present socialistic melee.

What can the correction be? It is personal as one’s own conscience and consciousness: the will to be oneself, the birth among us of a few authentic heroes. Thank the Lord that ours is not a numbers problem but, rather, my problem. And, hopefully, you will think of it as yours.

Away with this enslavement, that there may be a return to freedom, the source of progress. Heroism is the answer. Thanks for the enlightenment, Jose Ortega y Gasset!