The Heroism of Individuals

One of the greatest things about living in America is enjoying the enormous privilege of witnessing first-hand the extra-ordinary greatness of the accomplishments of heroic individuals—human beings who, ultimately, are no different than you or me in that they are mortal beings, not superhuman or gods. And yet, their achievements are so mind-blowing in the eyes of the rest of us that they achieve a status that is greater than us—we salute, respect and look up to them as the embodiments of the heroic ideals that we aspire to achieve ourselves.

On July 20^th 2009, we celebrate the 40^th anniversary of what is probably the seminal event of the 20^th century—the Apollo 11 mission—man landing on the surface of the moon. It is impossible to trivialize the significance of this event. The heroic individuals who first stepped onto the moon—Armstrong and Aldrin—are revered globally as the representatives of one of the pinnacles of human achievement. In the Homeric tradition of the Odyssey, they are:

. . . those few who have sailed past the point of the map where dragons be and come back home to tell the rest of us what they saw.
- Moon Walkers, Jeffrey Kluger, Time magazine, July 27, 2009

Their's is the accomplishment of true heroic individualism—of a few courageous explorers who were undaunted by what might seem to the rest us to be impossible odds. It always blows my mind to revisit the (newly restored) archival footage of man first landing on an alien world—the moon. As Aldrin referred to it, a "magnificent desolation"—like nothing else anywhere on the surface of the earth.

Living in America, one is continually reminded of the extra-ordinary, mind-blowing achievements of heroic individuals such as these—so much so that one often runs the risk of trivializing them and taking them for granted. Only recently, the world bore witness to the passing of one of the architects of modern TV news media—Walter Cronkite, designated "the most trusted man in America" by his peers. The story of Cronkite's passing is the number one news story of the moment—but what really strikes me about him is a point made by Susan Zirinsky, one of Cronkite's producers, on the CNN news show, AC 360:

. . . what was so striking about the time was the impact a single voice could have . . . those of us that grew up in that era saw the impact that this single man had . . . he was about the core value of the news.

Also striking are legendary newsman and Cronkite's successor as CBS news anchor, Dan Rather's words about his mentor, spoken on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC:

. . . as a television news anchor, . . . he set the standard . . . by expanding the public's understanding and connection to big stories . . . . As a sole anchor . . . he connected.

The profusion of heroic individualism in America is something many of us take for granted. It is, indeed, an amazing thing that American culture encourages, venerates and admires heroic individuals who go against the grain, challenge the status quo and achieve the impossible. That has always been the foundation of American culture.

In fact, one has to look no further than last year's Presidential elections to witness first-hand the value that American's place on heroic individualism. It is no coincidence that Barack Obama, the current U.S. President, is a testament to the American fascination with and admiration of individualists, as the Obama Presidential campaign had all the hallmarks of a heroic individualist who challenged the status quo and overcame impossible odds—all the while in deference to another heroic individualist, namely, Rev. Martin Luther King, the great civil rights activist. And, indeed, it is no coincidence that the Republican nominee for President was another famed "maverick" and heroic individualist in his own right, the Vietnam War veteran, Sen. John McCain.

In sports, too, Americans admire the legendary accomplishments of individuals who go beyond and achieve what the rest of us cannot even fathom. Even as we speak, Lance Armstrong is making an historic comeback in the Tour-de-France, while Tiger Woods is also returning to the international golf circuit.

This respect and healthy admiration for individual accomplishment is undoubtedly one of the central features that makes America great. I can only hope that we in the U.S. do not forget that. To lose a culture that encourages and promotes heroic individuals who go against the grain and challenge the status quo, who, in the Homeric tradition of Ulysses, transgress and transcend the boundaries and limitations that the rest of us impose on ourselves by virtue of our fears and our herd-mentality—to lose that would be to lose the very heroic spirit that makes America great. To become a nation of conformists who are too afraid to question authority or challenge the odds would be to lose the American Spirit—the heroic pioneer spirit responsible for the very foundation of this frontier nation.

Horizon Cybermedia is a modest attempt to take on the challenges of the 21^st century in the sphere of new media. By no means do we consider ourselves to be a news media organization in the vein of CNN or Fox News. We are, rather, a small digital media shop that aspires to produce quality digital media content to meet a growing demand on the internet. We are a modest operation that aspires to operate by adherence to a code of ethics and a principle of integrity and honesty.

Please continue to support our operation. Visit us at http://www.explorationtheseries.com, where you can view continually updating episodes of our flagship film series, Exploration with Uday Gunjikar. Here's looking forward to the rest of the century (and beyond?) as we continue to grow and change to meet the challenges that confront us!

Wishing you the very best,

Uday Gunjikar,
Founder and CEO,
Horizon Cybermedia, Inc.