The Hero.

Do people perform acts of heroism because they want to be famous, because they want to be someone on a planet of nobodies?

In reality, in the light of day, people walk by each other, without saying a word. People are served in superstores without even talking to the cashier, they phone up companies without even asking the name of the person they are talking to, to them that person is just another voice on the end of the phone. People are stabbed in the middle of busy streets by strangers; Good Samaritans in today’s society are few and far between, because they don’t want to get killed for trying to help out a person they don’t even know or they don’t want to get arrested for lending a helping hand to a man being beaten up.

Real heroes go unsung; they perform their heroic acts without being noticed. You’re not a hero, footballers aren’t heroes, models and film stars certainly aren’t heroes.

The real heroes are those people who volunteer to help with children who have special needs, those who work with the mentally ill and the elderly, those brave men and women who gave their lives in World Wars fought more than sixty years ago. You can say this, without fear of sounding weak, you couldn’t work with mentally ill children, you can’t even imagine what it would have been like to land on the Normandy Beaches on D-day in 1944 or to fight in the trenches in 1918, these people have done and still do these acts without being mentioned by name or receiving rewards, they are real heroes.

Performing a heroic act doesn’t make a person a hero, performing an act of heroism frequently and without thought to reward or notoriety makes a person a hero.

‘And you want me to agree with you, and you want me to say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. It's all fucked up. It's a fucking mess. We should all go live in a fucking log cabin." But I won't. I don't agree with you. I do not. I can't.’

Detective Mills, Se7en.