Next week the country will celebrate National Heroes’ Day, acknowledging the contributions of the great men and women whose lives—and deaths—shaped our nation’s history.
Last year, upon the showing of the film Heneral Luna, older Filipinos were aghast that some younger ones were clueless about why Apolinario Mabini, called the sublime paralytic, remained seated throughout the movie.
Thus followed a stinging criticism of how superficially we are educating our young, or how we are allowing them to be distracted by other things while losing sight of what is important.
As it is, this year’s commemoration of heroes is almost nothing but a calendar event, with children being grateful for another day of not having to go to school.
But perhaps our misdirected appreciation of our national heroes stems from the erroneous notion that heroes are born among us to deliver us from evil and other tales of great courage and conviction. It’s a dangerous thing to pass on to the next generation, indeed.
It’s erroneous because this desperation for superheroes —saviors if you will—has often brought us untold misery over the years. It is at best silly and at worst dangerous to believe that any one person can solve the ills of this nation and bring light upon this benighted land.
No single person is the epitome of good, evil, justice or courage. There are no absolutes; just a constant weighing of one quality against another.
This refusal to make sweeping judgments just because it is easy would be a worthy habit to pass on to the younger set who are often accused of laziness and entitlement, curiously because of the conditions we have created for them.
