Reply With QuoteFor very similar reasons,
Thich Nhat Hanh
Martin Luther King Jr.
The 14th Dalai Lama
Desmond Tutu
Who are your- and why? For me, I immediately think of Mother Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi and Nelson Mandela.
Mother Theresa for obvious reasons.
Ghandi and Mandela because they turned away from forceful conflict and embraced peaceful solutions.
Ghandi overthrew the might of the British empire by arguing ‘you can’t control 1 billion Indians’ after embarking on a path of non violent opposition.
Mandela, because he also turned away from violence and was magninimous in the extreme by not vilifying his persecutors.
All three I believe found inner peace and strength through a pure heart?
Last edited by Suds; 9th February 2022 at 21:31.
For very similar reasons,
Thich Nhat Hanh
Martin Luther King Jr.
The 14th Dalai Lama
Desmond Tutu
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
My history is shocking but maybe Martin Luther King, for similar reasons?
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
All of the above, and I'll add John Lennon.
Alec Rose, a real inspiration in what a humble man of average means can achieve as well as taking on no small physical challenge in his late fifties. I thoroughly recommend his book "My Lively Lady".
Shackleton of course, the sheer fortitude and leadership.
And finally all those men (and some women) many of them barely out of childhood whose selfless acts of bravery defeated evil in WWII.
For me it’s simply those that fought in The Great Wars.
I can’t even begin to imagine going over the top or being part of the D-Day landings.
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As an avatar for so many others’ wartime bravery I am always stirred by the story of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.
Lisa Potts.
When I hear sportspeople being described as 'heroes' I get mildly annoyed, they're just doing their jobs.
Maybe they're good at it, but that doesn't make them heroic, to my mind.
Lisa Potts put herself in mortal danger with no regard for herself, just saving the kids in her charge, that's heroism for you. And taking on a machete-wielding schizophrenia isn't in a nursery nurse's job description before someone suggests it was 'her job'.
I also get a little miffed when every forces person is described as a 'hero', it devalues the truly heroic (like Johnson Beharry, who I would have included, but his act was just 21st century) - Yes, I'm grateful they do they job they do, but the people who spend their lives handing out jackets at Catterick (or whatever) are NOT in the same league.
WW2 was full of people who were thrust into fighting against a truly evil enemy, they were all heroic in their way, as none, unlike today, had the choice to do something else.
I'd agree with Mandella and Martin Luther King Jr, eschewing violence and vengeance to try to achieve a better outcome.
Not so sure Lennon can be considered 'heroic'.
M
Last edited by snowman; 10th February 2022 at 10:43.
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
He's not remotely in the same league as some others mentioned in this thread that is true.Originally Posted by snowman
Yes, others have done far more and sacrificed far more but Lennon was the one who first opened my eyes to the injustices in the world, to war, peace, and all that entails, and by default led me to awareness of many of the other heroes mentioned here.
The Beatles were the first big British act that refused to play to segregated audiences in the states, the song Blackbird was about the struggle of young black kids to get an equal education there. The list goes on.
He risked imprisonment and harm in the USA, it could be argued quite convincingly that he wouldn't have been murdered by he who shall not be named if he wasn't so controversial and outspoken in his views.
Last edited by Ruggertech; 10th February 2022 at 11:18.
I lean towards Hitchens view on Mother Teresa. He wrote a whole book on her, but you can get the gist in 4 minutes here https://youtu.be/GZiKAeJ9mAU
Perhaps not as moral heroes, but as the 20th century's bravest (and arguably history's most impactful) explorers, I'd offer Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins as heroic.
David Attenbrough. He brought the natural world to the people, is a champion for awareness of climate change, and also, when he was controller of BBC2, he commissioned the Old Grey Whistle Test.
I'll second that. Also I didn't know he had commissioned the whistle test, that puts his status beyond doubt!
Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott, Captain Lawrence Oates, Winston Churchill, Mikhail Gorbachev, Queen Elizabeth II, David Livingstone, Neil Armstrong, Lord Baden Powell and many, many more.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Alan Turing and the crew at Bletchley
Dorothea Lange - I think she was a trailblazer of documentary photography / unspoken social commentary
I immediately thought of SOE female agents Odette Sansom GC MBE LdH (Codenamed Lise) and Violette Szabo GC CdeG (Codenamed Louise).
I can remember as a boy watching both Odette and Carve Her Name With Pride and carrying with me as a schoolboy a copy of Violette's encryption poem' The Life That I Have':
The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours.
The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.
Over the years I discovered the names of so many other brave young women who mainly parachuted (but some were flown in or landed by boat) into occupied France. Many were captured, tortured and executed and all knew that they would likely be caught within a matter of weeks.
I have so much respect for all of our wartime agents both male and female who risked their own lives for the benefit of those at Home.
scooter
Quite. Respect well deserved.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
1000s of ordinary and well known people, men, women and children but my dad was my hero, at the age of 20 (1940) he was called up to fight in WW2 and served until 1946 and as he once said to me, at the time he was a mammies boy and had never left Leicester, he said it was the worst time of his life but would have hated missing it and the mates he had in the army were real mates.
When you think what the ordinary men, women and kids of all countries went through in the wars you could say many were hero's.
What a great story and huge respect and gratitude to your father.1000s of ordinary and well known people, men, women and children but my dad was my hero, at the age of 20 (1940) he was called up to fight in WW2 and served until 1946 and as he once said to me, at the time he was a mammies boy and had never left Leicester, he said it was the worst time of his life but would have hated missing it and the mates he had in the army were real mates.
When you think what the ordinary men, women and kids of all countries went through in the wars you could say many were hero's.
We won't see the like of his generation ever again.1000s of ordinary and well known people, men, women and children but my dad was my hero, at the age of 20 (1940) he was called up to fight in WW2 and served until 1946 and as he once said to me, at the time he was a mammies boy and had never left Leicester, he said it was the worst time of his life but would have hated missing it and the mates he had in the army were real mates.
When you think what the ordinary men, women and kids of all countries went through in the wars you could say many were hero's.
I’ll second that.
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If doing something truly heroic qualifies then my vote goes to Pete Goss.
Awarded the MBE and the Legione d'Honneur he is well known in France he is almost unknown in the UK
Whenever you get one of those work leadership courses and they ask you to name someone you admire I always say Pete Goss.
I have always been met with blank looks until I explain what he did, then some people remember!
Wasn’t he Best Man at the French sailor’s wedding?
Indeed he was.
An easy choice maybe, as without him there would have been no wedding!
Arnaud Beltrame (correction, not 20th C)
Hugh Thompson
Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, Boris Baronov & Liquidators
Stared danger in the face, knew the probable consequences, carried on.
Last edited by BillyCasper; 22nd February 2022 at 14:29.
Queen Elizabeth 2 what an incredible woman!
Howard Florey, Norman Heatley , Jim Kent for penicillin.
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