When do we need a Hero?

The concept of the hero has been a crucial one in the civic history. We have studied about heroes, we respect heroes, we pray heroes, and we believe in heroes, we look forward to heroes. Hero is an entity who saves the ‘humanity’: his actions are inevitably ethical and just. Or to put it differently, once somebody is categorized as a hero, all his (Hero, thanks to our western as well as patriarchal tradition, is necessarily male, if hero is female, she has to be supported by male heroes) actions are just and ethical. Hero is always selfless, always helping, and always on the side of truth (but not necessarily non-violence). In one word, Hero is an avatar (literally in certain cultures and societies) of God. 

But the question is, when do we need a Hero? Heroes are not born; they are developed, created and, at times, portrayed as one. We wait for them to come, there will be prophesies about them. The requirement is certain conditions should be met for the ‘holy’ incarnation of a Hero. Those conditions can collectively be referred to as “Chaos” (via French and Latin from Greek Khaos – referring to the gap or void). We can find innumerable synonyms of this word, all meaning negatively. 

What I mean here is negative socio-political and/or religious and economic conditions are required for a hero to exist. At times, such conditions are formed deliberately to put an idol for the people to worship. I will give the examples which I have seen and have been seeing around me. India, at present, is one of the finest examples of the political and social chaos. The constitution of India has accepted democracy and religion-neutral approach. Because of which, there are innumerable smaller groups in the name of religion, cast, class, language, etc. and their representatives are available at various levels to defend their “birth-right”.

Now-a-days, there are innumerable Gurus available to teach people how to live life. They either come from management background or from religious one. And they come with the firm belief that people do not know how to live the life well. These Gurus initiate with the talk of futility of our life and then they enlighten us to make our life worth living. They stress on the uselessness and worthlessness on the life of every listener / reader, once we acknowledge their words they will automatically be turned into a Hero, a savior who will save the thousand of human beings living like animals. 

Best execution of the Heroism comes through the political field. Primarily because in this field, thank to illusory democracy, they, the politicians, have the power to decide a lot about the life of the common citizens. In order to remain a Hero, a political ideology has to create the chaos, without this chaos no citizen would look forward to or expect and accept anyone as his/her savior. The communal riots, we bear a wonderful history of it, are glaring specimens of such chaos. The best part about such chaos is that it calms down only physically, it is always alive and venomous mentally which makes the Heroes bigger than never before. We have many examples of such heroes, the recent ones are Dr Praveen Togadia, Narendra Modi, Shri Lalkrishna Advani, Bala Saheb Thakrey,  Madhu Srivastav, Vinay Katiar, Varun Gandhi. The list can go on. Interestingly, all these leaders (??) have got power and unsurpassable support from the common man (the nucleolus). In the ‘just’ enquiries about these “chaoses”, only these common citizens are found guilty till date, and they are the only one to suffer in chaos. The Heroes are untouched by the chaos unless they are in front of media or the election is close. The regionalism is another such chaos which has given us few more Heroes. The latest Hero of regionalism is Raj Thakrey. We have chaoses in the name of Language/s, economics, etc.

The biggest and most powerful chaos that our Heroes are almost successful to develop is our very education system. With the introduction of Self-finance institutes the education system has completely transformed into business hubs, with a very little or no control from the state authorities. In such education systems, there are no qualified teacher, and no qualified students. Students at the percentage of 40-45 get the admission in engineering and medical fields, and top of that these students are fully-aware that the institutes which have given them admission will also take the responsibility to pass them. They study not from their mind but from their fathers; bank-accounts, and ready to give away any amount to get the desired degrees and not the qualifications. Every year, around 3-5 thousand doctors or engineers come into market without even vacancy for 10 percent of them. And the biggest threat to any state is the herd of these unemployed youth. 

Then this youth is told that they are not getting jobs because government reserves for the scheduled casts, scheduled tribes, backward classes, etc. They are not getting jobs because the jobs which were meant for them are taken away by the other religious minorities or sub-classes. Thus, the economic instability navigates the hostility for others, and the ‘ill-educated’ youth thinks that The Others are responsible for their misery. Prejudiced, unemployed herds can be led to any path to develop further chaos, where the ego of these people will get satisfied. We require Heroes to make them happy, to allow them to kill their enemies, and remove hostility temporarily. 

The best of the Chaos today is termed as Terrorism. The most affected states by terrorism are the most helpful states to terrorism. They not only support terrorism materially but also support it mentally. With the help of media, they can generate the most powerful biases against certain people and communities, which will later turn into the terrorists. The most helpful chaos for the statesmen is the terrorism, because in the name of terrorism people are ready to forget anything and everything. We have forgotten and forgiven the biggest scams and genocides just to support a single terrorist attack. If there were one terrorist attack after every scam all statesmen would have been innocent by public law. The most important terrorist attack of this century was 9/11 attacks on twin-towers, the attack produced two Heroes: Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush Jr., and after Bush Obama won Nobel Prize for Peace for continuing Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of War against terrorism.

Osama Bin Laden becomes a Hero or made a Hero for all the Muslims of the world, as if he is fighting for the benefit for the Islam. If he and others like him, are fighting for the religion that their attacks should be on religious monuments. Osama would have attacked Pope in Rome or Jerusalem instead of attacking the economic hub of Twin-towers. Ajmal Kasab would have attacked Shrinathji or Somnath instead of attacking on Hotel Taj. Why these terrorists do chose the places which get good media coverage?  The attacks are the chaos from which they reborn as a Hero.

The fields are enormous; technique normally remains the same for almost all possibilities.