Does heroism supercede a subject's flaws?

[Paradox]

Alexander's signature stirred up the subject. As some of you may know, one of the men involved in the Mogadishu situation illustrated in the film Black Hawk Down is serving out a sentence in the Leavenworth military prison. The Army requested that, for the film, the man's name be changed to Frank Grimes in order to not retract from the heroism of the ordeal.<br /><br />Do you think that in certain situations (viewing a movie, for example) that one should only take into account the actions of the person at that time, or past and future indignations?<br /><br />(For more on John Stebbins' criminality, read: http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,9281,00.html )

[Rexoraptor]

Sorry to change the subject, but the name Frank Grimes I've heard twice (well, this being the third) On The Simpsons (Grimey ) and in the movie John Q (Lt. Frank Grimes, wonderfully played by veteran actor Robert DuVall). Funny, it's like a generic name now... like John Doe and Alan Smithee (in the Director's world of course).

[Chaotic_Baryonyx]

John Doe always reminds me of the movie Se7en.<br /><br />As for heroism, it depends on what one would see as 'heroism'. No one is for a fact a hero, it's all opinion.

[Shark Death]

[quote author=Chaotic_Baryonyx link=board=2;threadid=2262;start=0#msg33992 date=1059392810]<br />John Doe always reminds me of the movie Se7en.<br /><br />As for heroism, it depends on what one would see as 'heroism'. No one is for a fact a hero, it's all opinion.<br /><hr></blockquote><br /><br />That's a laugh. When a man rushes into a building on fire and pulls out 3 children who were about to be burned to death, he isn't a hero in some people's eyes? And don't give the wise-ass remark No, he's crazy. There are certain degress of heroism, but it's impossible to say that no one could or will ever be a true hero.

[I Am Emu Code Web]

[quote author=Parafox link=board=2;threadid=2262;start=0#msg33900 date=1059365009]<br />Do you think that in certain situations (viewing a movie, for example) that one should only take into account the actions of the person at that time, or past and future indignations?<br /><hr></blockquote><br /><br />I think in this case, being that the subject's name was changed, then yes, it's acceptable. The character being presented in the movie isn't John Stebbins, it's a character based on the course of action Stebbins took during that time period. <br /><br />That's not quite what you were asking though. Along the lines of questioning the selection of events from someone's life, I disagree that only certain actions should be taken into account. An act of heroism is definitely an indication of an aspect of someone's personality, although that individual's flaws should still be taken into account. It makes the heroic act that much more impressive. People are by far not perfect, and delusioning others or onesself into believing that by only paying attention to a select portion of their life gives an incorrect understanding of that person, and to a lesser degree could strongly misrepresent their heroism.

[beeurd]

Yeah, you can't truely form an accurate opinion of someone without knowing the full story. It's like saying you didn't like a jigsaw puzzle, when you only had 3 out of 1000 peices in place.

[Chaotic_Baryonyx]

[quote author=[ Shark Death ] link=board=2;threadid=2262;start=0#msg33997 date=1059398189]<br />[quote author=Chaotic_Baryonyx link=board=2;threadid=2262;start=0#msg33992 date=1059392810]<br />John Doe always reminds me of the movie Se7en.<br /><br />As for heroism, it depends on what one would see as 'heroism'. No one is for a fact a hero, it's all opinion.<br /><hr></blockquote><br /><br />That's a laugh. When a man rushes into a building on fire and pulls out 3 children who were about to be burned to death, he isn't a hero in some people's eyes? And don't give the wise-ass remark No, he's crazy. There are certain degress of heroism, but it's impossible to say that no one could or will ever be a true hero.<br /><hr></blockquote><br /><br />If these were children of Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden many people would hate him for it, and especially not think of him as a hero.

[Alexander]

Hard decision really. What he did was heoric at the time. What he did later in life was not. If someone questioned me about his actions at the time period BHD was placed then yes, I'd say he was a hero. As a whole however, I wouldn't consider him a hero.

[I Am Emu Code Web]

...In other words, an individual who has performed heroic acts is not necessarily a heroic individual?

[Alexander]

If they do anything that hinders that image of heroism (ie. Stebbins) then they lose that respect of heroism for future acts. I will still respect them for their actions at the time though.