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Recklessness And Bravery Are Often Mistaken For One Another. With Fatal Results

November 1, 2008

Recklessness And Bravery Are Often Mistaken For One Another. With Fatal Results The British newspapers today are full of praise for an 84-year old pensioner, who foiled an attempted raid on a jewellery store in London by two thugs wearing balaclavas. As they were trying to smash the shop windows with their sledgehammers the pensioner, wearing a poppy, walked up to one of them, pulled off his balaclava and just stood there, bravely, if you believe the hacks, waiting for the criminals to flee.

Which they duly did, having realised that their identities could be traced on the basis of footage from the CCTV cameras in the area.

The newspapers wrote about the courage of the old man and the cowardice of about 50 passers-by, who just stood there watching and did absolutely nothing to prevent the robbery.

Yes, well, I personally find the action of the still unnamed hero quite reckless actually. It was not like he saved the life of a person, who was being attacked by muggers. He interfered with two violent criminals, who were trying to rob a jewellery store and who could have killed him on the spot. The shop in question, by the way, had been robbed twice in recent past, so we may safely assume that all its contents was insured. So even if the robbery were successful, the owners would have been compensated for the loss of their stock. Just like most shops and banks are compensated by insurers when they are robbed.

Taking this into account we could safely conclude that the unnamed hero did not really demonstrate any bravery. He just took an unnecessary risk and, luckily for him, got off lightly. It could have been much worse. He could have ended up dead or seriously injured and – what is even worse – the robbers could have vented their anger on some of the bystanders and killed or wounded them. And then this supposed act of heroism would have turned into a major tragedy.

The newspapers, of course, got it all wrong; once again. They missed the main point completely and presented the pensioner as a hero. Especially as he was wearing a poppy, and could have been a potential war veteran, and Remembrance Sunday was approaching. So in the editors’ minds the story seemed perfect. And they did not really think about the consequences of what they were writing. Because there are many reckless people around nowadays, and they would love to get involved in a bit of bravery to get their names mentioned in the papers or on television. And these have-a-go-heroes don’t realise that they might endanger other people by their actions.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I am all for heroism when it makes sense. If you see a woman being attacked by a rapist or a mugger you should come to her rescue at once. If you see children being abused, you should help them. If you see anyone in any trouble, you come to their rescue. But you do not, I repeat, you do not go for cheap pots at fame just for kicks. You do not confront violent thugs, pulling off a heist, when the chances of you and other people getting hurt are high. You do not try to foil a bank robbery by armed men just because you hope to become a hero for a day, or get a reward. Banks, as I have already said, are insured, so they will get their money back. But if you get killed or seriously wounded, you would not get your life or your health back.

Just think about it when you get any silly ideas to show off your bravery.

– End –

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