Why you don't want to be called a hero

Description

Article for the Belgian (Flemish) newspaper The Standaard. The many references to the heroism of hospital staff during the covid pandemic show how, as a daily speech act, calling somebody a 'hero' is, in spite of what one might expect, the opposite of granting that person a high status. In fact today 'heroism' is a name for losers doing the kind of work hardly anybody is interested in doing and that rather leads to neglect than to respect. Calling somebody a hero today is an exorcist ritual: it helps us forget we treat them as outcasts and to hope we can continue doing so.