Incoheroism

Here's the neologism that will sweep the nation, you heard it here first. This term refers to ostensible acts of heroism in which the motives of the "hero" are muddled at best, even morally troubling. Like for instance saving a friend from drowning because he owes you money; donating a kidney to a stranger because you have a secret surgery fetish; becoming a soldier decorated for bravery because of your xenophobia and insatiable bloodlust. The unspoken motivations need not be negative or sinister, necessarily, although that sure makes it funnier for the cynics among us. Of course you could say that nearly all acts of heroism qualify as incoheroism, the divided human mind being what it is. If there's one kind of person no one can stand it's someone who's pure at heart, unless that person is recently dead or lived long, long ago. (Conveniently, it just so happens that the pure of heart almost always fall into one of these two categories.) Does it matter what truly impelled the hero as long as the child is rescued from the burning building, etc? That's a question for bigger brains than mine! Let's ask Bill Moyers.

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