Defining and surveying heroism

DEFINITIONS have cultural contexts; this is what historian Zeus A. Salazar taught his students. So “heroism” and “may be equivalent terms but they don’t have the same meaning. I will talk about this in an upcoming forum which will be held at the Social Weather Stations Knowledge Center on January 23, Tuesday.

Heroism as a concept came from the Greeks. Looking at Hercules as an example, a “hero” can be a strong-willed and supernatural character who consciously directs his abilities for the good of the people. The Western-inspired edu - nition; that is why we see heroes as larger than life characters with extraordinary strength, extraordinary courage and extraordinary bill. Supposedly heroes should be role models, but we have elevated Rizal to the status of a demi-god, like Hercules.

Salazar collected local definitions from different ethnolinguistic groups of similar concepts and came out with the conclusion. Related to the Austronesian word “meaning helping and being compassionate with others, hence “as of government workers; and the Visayan word “or fearless warrior; a “may mean “someone who gives service to the bayan without expecting anything in return.”

Hence, according to Salazar, the core of the difference between an “(in Spanish) and “lies with the individualism and preoccupation of the former with their own “persona” (being famous, cut above the rest) apart from the people as opposed to the latter whose is always to be with the people, doing the ways of the people, and being humble like the rest.

With this dichotomy, it is clear that people like Rizal, some ilustrados, and even revolutionary generals such as Gregorio del Pilar and Emilio Aguinaldo, who were distinguished for their talents and contribution to the people, yet were separated from most of the ‘bayan” because of their Western education. Hence they are “while people like Andres Bonifacio, ordinary Katipunan members, ordinary soldiers in the front, who fought along with the others and remained culturally part of the “are the “

But I should clear two things: 1) Being an “is not negative per se; and 2) While I accept this dichotomy as referring to the “nature” of historical personages—who they were and where they came from—this dichotomy might not apply to how present Filipinos view heroism per se. The Western-inspired educational system blurred this but nevertheless this confusion is now part of the discourse. Because on August 7, 2011, I conducted a survey of over 40 people’s organizations leaders in Metro Manila under the Urban Poor Associates and asked heroes. Rizal garnered 42 out of 44 votes, Andres Bonifacio got 38 votes, Mabini got 19 and Emilio Aguinaldo even got 16 votes.

A few months before my own survey, the Social Weather Stations published their national survey of favorite Filipino heroes on April 8, 2011. The respondents were asked, “Who are the persons whom you consider a real Filipino hero? You resembled the results of my own survey: Rizal got 75 percent, Bonifacio got 34 percent, Ninoy Aquino, 20 percent, Cory Aquino, 14 percent, Mabini, 14 percent, and Aguinaldo, 11 percent. So, both national heroes and elite political leaders can be considered “by the people.

Presidents are usually not considered in the list of heroes but as one of my respondents Tess listed: Rizal, Magsaysay, Macapagal, Roxas, Bonifacio, Quezon, Osmeña – except for the popular Ramon Magsaysay, the faces of all these personalities appear in our basic currencies. They had more chances of having name recall as a hero.

One of my respondents, Gina E. placed “F. Marcos” at the same time with “B. Aquino, Jr.” as two of her favorite heroes despite their rivalry during Martial Law. In the 2011 SWS survey, President Ferdinand Marcos already placed seventh with 5.1 percent. The concept of “heroé” made some consider as a hero a dictator with a questionable record in human rights and clean governance yet who made an amazing number of government projects.

Public acclamation of someone as a “is even more important than any law legislating national heroes. Rizal was never declared a national hero by any law but in many ways, the people appropriated him as their “despite some questions about his actions during the revolution. The Americans may have helped in this yet “even before the Americans came.

The difference between a and a may be academic for some but still, it is important to be aware of the cultural baggage of concepts. Although I believe that national heroes should be special in terms of their immense contribution to nation-building, that we too, ordinary mortals, can be