Go soak your head, too.

It appears we have the same perspective: heroism can be a form of self-worship. Worship should be exclusively reserved for a God-ideal.

Notwithstanding, I am a woman and cannot deny I am attracted to sweaty virility. It’s alot more attractive than a pudgy Canadian man/child who worships Mother Earth as a display of his “sensitivity” and takes pride in his male- oriented cosmetics.

Give me a real man — not, a metro-sexual.

1) Adventure seeking Anglo-boy with a sense of “War Service = The grandest kind of heroism” heads in to the Army while his country is at war.

(Notice he didn’t join the services when we were not officially at war. You know, it’s like my longstanding theory that the real heroes of the development of California were the ones stealing -I mean cultivating and irrigating- the land long before dust storms in the great basin forced the johnny-come-latelys to start working there.

2) Said Anglo-boy gives up his life of comfort for a ’cause’. He receives a cool gun, and the admiration of many.

3) Dude gets a hell forged anti-coaltion bullet through his all too tender flesh. We give a fuck for 20 minutes.

You’ll politely excuse me if I don’t give him the Jonas Salk award for contributions to the building of a better world.

-Adam

If Pat Tillman wanted Hero worship. He had it in the NFL. You are dead wrong and an angry piece of work, too.

I’m all for shooting down idols, starting with the ones we ourselves hold onto. I also think that “heroism” for it’s own sake would be an “idol” (something that people might vainly hold onto for some kind of salvation but that is just a human construction). That’s my opinion. But I also think that people can have faith that is not idolotry; in God, not in a “god” that’s constructed in their minds (although you could certainly argue this point from certain veins of modern psychology).

I’m I being idealist to make a statement of faith like this? Is it cynical to debate the truth of the matter when you don’t believe anything is really true?

Maybe I’ve misread your post, so please correct me if you think that’s the case. The more I look at what you write, though, I just see layers of contradictions.

You admire the “pagan vitality” of a poor, misguided victim of his own uncomprehended needs… Sounds a lot like the attraction that David Beckham engenders in British women. It’s obviously not his mind that attracted you but some sweaty fantasy perhaps…?

You attack the “swarmy eulogy” with a cynical rant. Warm fuzzies melting in the heat. Well, you do have a point here. I’m not a big fan of swarmy or cynical. They’re both too easy.

If someone tears down a false idol — do you call it a hate crime?

As a woman I admire Tillman’s pagan vitality– It’s quite manly. But, the false piety of smarmy eulogies from the chattering class is fair game.

Tillman was a casualty of a “DEEP NEED”– the desperate desire for male heroism. A universal need in every race. Such a truth is not arm-chair psychology — just fact.

Now was his sacrifice worthy? As a Brit, I believe his sacrifice in the war against barbarism makes his death worthy. Just as worthy as the sacrifices of others lying still under British and American flags.

Tillman is a hero, amongst other heroes.

Some of the motivations that you describe may apply. I’m sure you have a general point. But general points are easy to make with no research and little thought required. General points usually just require looking inside ourselves, finding the (best or) worst you can see, and then applying it to others. Of course, you’re right sometimes, because everyone, after all, is human. But you’re going to be wrong just as often, because regardless of how “right” it feels, you actually don’t know what goes on inside the minds of others, whether Arab or American.

When you take the next step and ascribe that patriotism and religion are “rationalizations” for a “deep need…” for…whatever…I’m afraid I’ve lost interest. This is amateurish armchair psychology. Easy to write. No pain for you. No mental cost either. But there is a motivation, so what is it? Maybe your own interior world and rationalizations/convictions (or lack of them) is worth exploring more than the motivations and convictions of others you don’t know.

The same need compels bored Muslim men to fight against America. Young men, especially, can feel a deep need to throw themselves into a life or death struggle: to prove their meddle. Their bravery comes from an unconscious conviction it’s the guy next to him — who will die. All of us, deep down, feel the universe will protect our “specialness” from death.

We should immediately suspect an espousal of patriotism or religion (rationalizations) as a disguise for this deep male need for heroism; and understand “bravery” is often another word for feeling special — and,therefore — immortal.

You all know it’s true — so spare the false piety of special honorifics for Tillman.

He is an American soldier who died in battle: a hero amongst other American heroes.