God knows, the world could use more heroes. What would an agenda for creating everyday heroes look like? So asks psychologist extraordinaire Phillip Zimbardo.
Everyone has the POTENTIAL to be a hero, but, for whatever reason, most people aren’t incited to practice heroism everyday. Of course, this larger group will act heroically when called upon, like in times of disaster or crisis, but, as Dr. Zimbardo highlights, the wrong conditions can also push this larger group to act like villains, such as in the case of the Rwanda genocides or in the Stanford Prison Experiments.
The goal of HeroCamp is to promote the idea of the ‘banality of heroism‘ – the idea that heroes are normal people, not people who totally sacrifice themselves for others, but speak out and act out when they see injustice, put their time and effort into making the world a better place and truly care about their fellow human beings. Thus, when situations arise that encourage evil, they will recognize them and call them out.
HeroCamp takes place October 23-26 in Houston. Join me there. We are out to change the world. You, too, can be a hero.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I can’t wait Jay. Looking forward to meeting you.
To me, heroes are ordinary people who make the right/tough decision to act even at personal inconvenience/risk. A very important component of making the world a better place, a very worthwhile endeavor, and I’m completley behind making it less mysterious and more accessible.
First of all, I believe in “ordinary” heroes. The concept of a HeroCamp is a neat idea. My own ideas about heroes are as follows:
On the rope of life, heroes climb above their weakest point, putting themselves at risk for the benefit of others. Heroes are not always aware of their own heroism. Love, compassion, duty and honor call them forth and they respond. Still, even heroes on a worthwhile quest against evil must search their own hearts for smoldering embers of hate or vengeance that could influence their actions and bring dishonor and disaster. We are only human. Heroes or not, we often fight our deadliest battles against ourselves and the best way to tame our dark, snarling inner desires is to flood those beasts with light.
Laurel Anne Hill
Author of “Heroes Arise,” a parable.
http://www.redroom.com/blog/laurel-anne-hill
http://www.laurelannehill.com
You have hit the hammer on the nail. Heros are normal people, or to put it the other way round, we dont have to be super human or a ninja mutant to be a superhero. You should be a normal guy who speaks up against evil,is commpasionate towards fellow humans.
Hi Jay,
Glad to hear you’re going to be participating at HeroCamp. I think it’s an excellent event, and I’m bummed that I can’t be there. However, I have been working with some very sharp people here in San Diego to create CrisisWire.com, which will be presented at HeroCamp. CrisisWire.com will aggregate information from MANY social and mainstream media sources to help inform people during the event of an emergency, disaster, crisis, etc. It’s been a fascinating project, and I think it will be a huge help to those that need critical information during difficult times.
If you get a chance, I recommend chatting with Nate Ritter, the project manager of CrisisWire. He’ll be at HeroCamp.
hero’s are like common peoples in the world. Their respect is when compared with others. they have high status and they are liked by every people because of their popularity.
———
Brook
Business Sales