There was a time when heroes were expected to die young, because their courageous deeds could only free them from the erosion of everyday life if they departed from the world of the living before the unanimous admiration for their actions began to fade.
The sacrifice of one’s life, demanded by the challenges of fate or wisely offered in exchange for immortality, is today regarded as absurd… and rightly so. In truth, opportunities in which life can be exchanged for any other human or social value, however highly esteemed, are exceedingly rare.
In a World dominated by media culture, these archaic notions of heroism no longer make any sense, above all because the contemporary concept of the hero requires the individual to survive and to remain available to tell the story to the Media.
This means that the media hero is not necessarily the author of the historic feat, but must necessarily be the protagonist of the narratives that can be constructed around that feat in the media.
We must admit that this is a far more accessible and democratic form of heroism, practically within the reach of almost every ordinary person, at least once in a lifetime.
Paulo Fidalgo
CEO of Marketividade
