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Ironically, this doesn't make me want to be a hero. Instead it makes me see the thanklessness of duty. Society loves a dead hero because they can be used without asking for anything.

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> Ironically, this doesn't make me want to be a hero.

Not everyone is capable.

> Instead it makes me see the thanklessness of duty.

I dunno. Lots of people are very thankful that Rescorla saved their lives, or the lives of the people they love.

The hero chooses to do his duty even though he knows he won't be thanked, even though he knows he will die.

I don't know if I'd be a hero, but I hope I would.

For my family? For those I love and those who I really care about? No question. But for some abstract like society, as part of a job for a paycheck, or out of some internalized sense of duty? No.

"A man does not have himself killed for a half-pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify him."

- Napoleon Bonaparte, as quoted in Civ 4

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