Agan Harahap

The essence of a rational morality is a ruthless dedication to reality and to the factual requirements of man’s life on earth. Man’s life requires the achievement of values: he must build his houses, grow his food, develop the medicines that cure the diseases which afflict him, and discover the principles in logic, philosophy, science, that make possible all these accomplishments and more. The achievement of values is not guaranteed, automatic or effortless. Struggle, i.e. the act of strongly-motivated striving, the pursuit of goals involving great exertion, even difficulty, is inherent in the nature of life. Man’s nature provides him with built-in needs and the ability to satisfy them–but not with the goods their satisfaction requires. These are the product of his own effort, often prodigious and sometimes in the teeth of antagonistic forces, be they insentient, bestial or human.

The hero is the man dedicated to the creation and/or defense of reality-conforming, life-promoting values. Because of the culture’s mind-body split the defender of rational values has very often been recognized whereas their creator has not. But the truth is that the man who creates values is the primary hero; the man who defends the creator from evil is a hero because the creator has made human life possible. This distinction must be made because of irrational philosophy dominating the culture. Nevertheless, in fact, both the industrialist who creates a new product and the police officer who rescues him from kidnappers are heroes–and for the same reason: the actions of both exhibit an unswerving loyalty, no matter the opposition, to the values required by human life. This is the indispensable moral pre-requisite of being a hero. Lacking this, one need not apply.

What defines heroism? Superman? Fidel Castro? Afghan resistance fighters? Our soldiers in Afghanistan? Captain America? Heinrich Himmler? Where does one cross over from heroism to terrorism? Where is the line separating freedom from oppression? Protagonist or antagonist? What lengths do we go to gain that bit of ego inflation?

Composite images by Agan Harahap. Additional text by Dr. Andrew Bernstein.