Who are your heroes or heroines?

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DetroitDave
Umberto Eco - Favorite writer and thinker. Wish I could write half as well as he does .

I read his book "Travels in Hyperreality" but I found it to be a ho-hum read at best. Some of his critics of American society were good but most of it boiled down to the "I am a Euro-snob and I believe my culture is so clearly better then yours; I don't really know why I say that but it is simply what I am used to" verity.

[rah]

Originally posted by oedo
my mum

And my father too.
True Heroes.

[The Andy-Man]

Count Bezuhov

[Traianvs]

.. for my heroine

[MattyBoy]

Ari, Xaos is incredible.
Thankyou for that.

[St Leo]

Douglas Adams

[Cruddy]

These are people that have left a mark on me - there are countless others I am unfamiliar with. Some odd ones in this list but...

Ghandi - Great Soul says it all really.

Ike - yep, Eisenhower was pretty unique. Anyone that could organise Overlord, keep the reins on Patton and put a firecracker up Clark deserves respect.

Jon Pilger - a war journalist of the highest order, and a campaigner without peer against overwhelming odds.

Jochen Peiper - Colonel of Hitler's bodyguard but never a member of the Nazi party! Now that is unique. Scapegoated for the Malmedy massacre.

Nelson Mandela - Always insisted on his right to violence in defence of his civil rights. Great speaker, thinker, and suffered for his beliefs.

Alexandr Solzehnitsyn - hope I spelled it right, documented the atrocities of the Soviet era (and suffered quite a few of them personally).

Primo Levi - Like the above but was a survivor of Nazi conentration camps. Unforgetable reading.

Zhukov - Anyone that wasn't scared of Stalin deserves respect. Had his field HQ on the front line of Stalingrad, truly a brave leader.

Colonel H Jones - I judge him by the loss felt by his remaining subordinates, not for his heroic sacrifice.

Heroine's - a couple come to mind.

Jesus' Mom - Mary or Miriam, she suffered but kept on going.

The Late Queen Mum - WW1 nurse, must have seen some horrible sights, bombed in WW2 - always smiled.

Mother Therasa - now there was a hard working woman, not to mention an inspiration to others.

There are others, but that's enough for this thread.

[Agathon]

Re: A short list:

Originally posted by Ramo
Albert Einstein
Richard Feynman
Petr Kropotkin
Emma Goldman
Emiliano Zapata
Nestor Makhno
Eric Blair
Henry David Thoreau
Mahatma Gandhi
Martin Luther King Jr.

No argument with most of these, but isn't it a bit pretentious to refer to Orwell by his given name?

I'd add

Marcus Aurelius
Socrates
Alexander the Great
John Steinbeck

Why doesn't Steinbeck get his due as a writer of the left, like Orwell does. Even he doesn't come close to what Steinbeck achieved in "The Grapes of Wrath" and "In Dubious Battle".

[Dis]

Bill O' Reilly

no seriously. Sure he's an arrogant egotistical bastard. But I fail to see how this is a bad thing.

Ego is a good thing. Women dig men who are confident about their abilities. They don't want some dweeb who isn't confident about his intelligence.

And he is extremely smart and good with words. People who hate him fail to see this because they are blinded by their own extreme political views. In fact O'Reilly puts it best. When you are on the extreme right or extreme left you tend to follow what your leaders say whether they are right or wrong. And you tend to see those who disagree with those political views as stupid.

This is why it is important not to be an extremist. It can blind one to the facts. I won't argue that Bill has a right slant, but he is not extreme like Sean Hannity and friends.

As for other Heroes, well I have many from the creation of the country. Don't forget Patrick Henry and Samual Adams. And do not forget those who have faught for the freedom of my great nation from past to present.

Abraham Lincoln. The courage this man has for standing for his beliefs despite massive opposition is truelly amazing.

[Cruddy]

Re: Re: A short list:

Originally posted by Agathon



Why doesn't Steinbeck get his due as a writer of the left, like Orwell does. Even he doesn't come close to what Steinbeck achieved in "The Grapes of Wrath" and "In Dubious Battle".

Steinbeck is a great author, and I'd recommend his books to anyone interested in a view of past suffering of the poor.

What makes Orwell so great was he predicted the future suffering of the poor - and the forms of control that would evolve and appear.

[Ben Kenobi]

As for those not listed:

William Wilberforce
Alexander Solzhenisyn
Helen Keller

[alva]

Ego is a good thing. Women dig men who are confident about their abilities. They don't want some dweeb who isn't confident about his intelligence.

You don't become something because women 'dig it', that's not confidence but arrogance IMHO.