[coberst]

High School Heroes

I suspect it is in high school that we get a real taste of what the hero system is all about. This is, perhaps, our first taste of what socialization, self-esteem, and heroism really mean to us personally.

Each high school seems to offer some means for becoming a hero. Unfortunately it seems that the hero slots are few and they usually accentuate physical attributes. In one high school football is king of self-esteem, in another it may be basketball, in another it may be baseball, in another etc. There are other hero slots that are filled by those with ‘good looks’, ‘witty personality’, ‘has a car’, etc. Most students must find their own means for becoming heroes because the high school does not provide the means for sufficient hero slots to meet the demand.

Self-esteem is the goal and heroism is the means,; those who do not find a means for establishing self-esteem are in trouble. “The supreme law [of life] is this: the sense of worth of the self not be allowed to be diminished.”--Alfred Adler. In other words, the fundamental law of human life is the urge to self-esteem.

Our self-esteem is derived from symbols. In the ape such matters were biologically cared for but we humans depend upon a symbolic constitution of worth. We are largely artificialized creatures dependant upon our society to provide each of us with a means for establishing our own self-esteem, without which we go crazy.

Our whole life is a continual animation seeking an artificial symbol of self-worth. Often net-worth is our avenue for satisfying this craving for self-worth.

I suspect each of us has a movie-reel constantly running in our head whereby we maintain a real time grade for self-esteem. If that grade goes to ‘F’ such things as the massacre at Virginia Tech happen.

These forum postings are part of my hero activity. What are some of your acts of heroism, and are they keeping your self-esteem grade high enough to satisfy you?

Do you think that your society is providing you with sufficient means for your hero needs?

[Buffy]

Raising my kid. There's nothing better than when she actually *calls* me her hero!

Society notoriously *surpresses* self-esteem. The social stigma of the Caste System at my daughter's middle school is downright scary. Society *encourages* this Caste System. Various actors--in school, mostly enlightened and far too rare teachers--work against this system *socially*, while having to carry it out every minute of the day *academically*.

Mental illness may cause self-esteem problems, but self-esteem itself does not cause a Virginia Tech. It *does* cause conflict and strongly affects the ability of managers like me to motivate people to do things in the business world.

Strong self-esteem is almost as bad as weak self-esteem. I hire people mostly in the the third quartile in many cases when they are weak on experience or knowledge because that's overcome by an attitude of "I think I can."

People with really high self-esteem know everything and don't want to listen to what other people have to say or take any criticism. They're totally sucky.

Moderation in all things,
Buffy

[Qfwfq]

Originally Posted by Buffy

They're totally sucky.

Especially when they're superiors but incapable of doing their job, their orders make no sense but ya mustn't dare say a word or even ask clarification.

[coberst]

I use high school days to start my thread because it seems to me that it is this period in our life that we become much more centered upon what it takes to satisfy society. We look around us and become conscious for the first time about status in society. We begin to decide a course in life that will get us the sense of self-esteem that we desire. These high school years are very important formative years for all of us.

Like many words ‘hero’ has a technical meaning and a common usage meaning. The technical meaning is what we have here.

Psychology uses this word ‘hero’ to define that activity that we all constantly perform to establish and maintain our self-esteem. We humans cannot survive if our self-esteem hits rock bottom. The science of psychology and psychoanalysis needs a word to express this fact.

We get feed-back from society as to our value and we get our own evaluation of our worth. If our stocks go up we are heroes, if our grades go up we are heroes, if we play basketball well or dance well we are heroes, because it builds our sense of our value.

We have many moral codes both secular and sectarian. These moral codes are more a basis for conflict than for harmony. We have been warring against one another since becoming a species and have survived. However, something very important happened in the twentieth century, we developed the technology that allows us to destroy the species very quickly. We badly need a new code with more universal appeal. If we do not find a means for creating harmony we are in deep do-do.