The moral fiber of heroes

- A hero is not the person that accomplishes incredible physical things. Maybe we admire those people because they have the discipline to do it, but it's the discipline, it's not just the physical accomplishment, but it's the moral firework that enables these athletes to go wherever they need to go to reach beyond what has happened in the past. But you don't need to be a world-class athlete to be a hero. In fact, some of the most incredible acts of heroism are made by simple people like you and me. One story that really rocked me when I read it is the second part of an experiment. You may know the first part. Paul Milgram is a famous researcher from Stanford, and he had an experiment where he brought people in, normal people, but he went to test how these people would respond to authority. So let's say there were 10 people from the outside, but mixed with them, there was one person that was this confederate, was an artist, an actor, so they put 11 and appeared to randomly choose the actor to be, quote, the learner. So the actor was going to be the learner. They put the actor inside a lab and hooked him to some electric wires, and the experiment was for the people outside, which had to give feedback to the learner where he made a mistake with an electric jolt, and there was a dial that went from zero to 400 volt, and at 200, said danger, and there was a skull and bones, and 400 said dead, or something, I mean just horrible signs that said don't do this, and the experiment was with a man in a white lab coat that the only thing he was allowed to say, this is one of the experimenters, please continue with the experiment. He wasn't yelling at people, he wasn't punishing them, he wasn't threatening them, he only said, "Please continue with the experiment." So what happened is the first person would go there, the others were watching, and the experimenter would say, here's the experiment, if he makes a mistake, you give him a jolt with the button, and then we'll raise the dial every time. And people started getting uncomfortable, they didn't know that was the case, that that's what they were asked to do, but they started doing it, and then after 100 volts, the jolts became painful, and the actor started screaming. Now there was no real electricity, it was the guy screaming, but they didn't know. They actually thought they were giving the jolts. Well the question was how far would these people get, when after 300, the person would go unconscious? And the experimenter keeps saying, "Please continue with the experiment." Well they thought that there's a three percent of psychopaths in any population, so maybe one out of the 10, or they did this many times, they said maybe three, five percent of people would get to a dangerous level. Well it turns out that fully, two thirds of the people got all the way to a deadly discharge. It's shocking. Amazing that they couldn't believe how people would obey authority, and just do horrible things and have no sense of morality to stop that and say, "I'm not doing it." That's the bad part of the experiment. But they did it again with a change. They had two confederates. One was the actor, but the other was another actor which was chosen to be the first one. And this first actor, in front of everybody else, rebelled. So when the experimenter said, "Please continue with the experiment." Said, "No, I'm leaving." And stood up and walked. After that, 90 percent of the people walked. Only one person would continue. That's heroism. That's what a hero does, it says, I will stand for the truth, I will stand for what's right, I will walk away, and the example of that can change the world. To be a hero, you do the right thing. You choose to express your values in the face of difficult circumstances, and you give an example to other people that that is the way to live.