40 classic movie calls to heroism in 2:00 flat

Well edited and well done! But, hey, no better time like now to deconstruct the outsize, unreachable, CGI-enhanced BS attached to simple courage. If, like me, you're not Mel Gibson or Viggo Mortensen, maybe Zimbardo's and Franco's well done 6-page article "The Banality of Heroism" (pdf - 332kb) is welcome inspiration:

...As our society dumbs down heroism, we fail to foster heroic imagination.

There are several [Five - ed.] concrete steps we can take to foster the heroic imagination. We can start by remaining mindful, carefully and critically evaluating each situation we encounter so that we don't gloss over an emergency requiring our action. We should try to develop our "discontinuity detector" -- an awareness of things that don't fit, are out of place, or don't make sense in a setting. This means asking questions to get the information we need to take responsible action.

Second, it is important not to fear interpersonal conflict, and to develop the personal hardiness necessary to stand firm for principles we cherish. In fact, we shouldn't think of difficult interactions as conflicts but rather as attempts to challenge other people to support their own principles and ideology.

Third, we must remain aware of an extended time-horizon, not just the present moment....

Check it out. It's quite an encouraging read from Zimbardo, who knows from goodness and hearts of darkness (The Stanford Prison Experiment [wiki], [guba video - 51 mins.)

Oh, yeah. Notice the "Discontinuity detector" part above? And asking questions that lead to responsible action? If you've ever helped reengineer something you know how touchy that can be. Heck, if you work in a functioning office it's touchy, maybe more so. Let's cover that in a post coming up, since I promised already to do that, last week, in this one on Barry Diller's sudden epiphany that things ain't right in certain quarters of finance and executive management. (Profound, I know.)