Opinion Sur
There are human groups that solve in their own way the tension between what is personal and what is social, mine/ours, individual/society turning a personal challenge, an interest, an obstacle into a collective fact. And that speaks for itself especially in a media world that feeds from successful individualities. It is a major contribution to make achievements, creativity, and “good living” of anonymous groups of citizens visible.
A story can only be born from a “fantastic binomial” (…) One electric pole is not enough to cause a spark it takes two. One lonely word “reacts” only when it finds a second one that provokes it and makes it exit the monotony path, discover new significance abilities. There is no life where there is no fight (…)
Gianni Rodari. The Grammar of Fantasy
Taking up the gauntlet and applying Rodari’s formula, I open up myself to the game of contacting the words “heroes” and “collective” to cause the spark and ignite thinking. In principle, we should take into account that this pair of words is the title of a movie that tries to bring light to social practices of human groups that have tried to solve a problem or tackle a disadvantaged situation in a creative way. Before coupling them, I believe it is important to analyze them separately and contemplate the alchemy that gets produced in their audacious mix.
In the Dictionary of the Real Academy the word hero is defined as “an illustrious person famous for her deeds and virtues,” it also refers to “a character in a work of fiction that, generally, makes courageous and risky actions.” Nowadays, we are used to talk more about superheroes, may be because heroism is not conceived without superhuman powers. Or about antiheroes, word that does not appear in the Dictionary of the Real Academy but it does in Wikipedia which considers it “a leading character that lives by his own moral compass, making efforts to define and build his own values, opposed to those that are recognized by the society in which he lives.”
All the lines that converge in the meaning of “hero” underline the individual aspect, the brave attitude, and the possibility of transforming a disadvantageous situation into a great deed.
Let submerge ourselves in the meaning of “collective,” an adjective that is used in relation with a “grouping of individuals;” “that has the virtue of gathering or reuniting.” Nowadays, it is also used as a noun: to name the groups that share certain interests and that work together to achieve changes in society.
The first spark that is produced by uniting “hero” and “collective” is the temptation of solving the tension that is presented by the joint presence of terms that we usually conceive as separate: personal/social, mine/our, individual/society. Solving this dilemma is at the heart of the matter we would like to delve into at El Agora when we look at, recover, and disseminate good social practices.
In most of the stories, there is a human group that has solved in a determined way the tension, turning a challenge, an interest, and a personal obstacle into a collective fact. And that speaks for itself, especially in a media word that feeds from successful individualities. From this point of view, making achievements, creativity, and the “good living” of an anonymous group of citizens visible is still a novelty.
The project Collective Heroes has multiple objectives, not just to make local stories of social transformation visible. It also tries to empower those organizations and groups of main characters to keep moving forward, recognize themselves in their effort, joy, and magic of an everyday doing, to look at them with admiration, to renew their energies and pass it on to others so that they follow them and keep up with their own practices. Doing the right thing, feels good; and making it with many people, feels much better. Creativity that distinguishes us as human beings is potentiated when it is exercised collectively.
Now, is there heroism in such practices? It is true that the majority of initiatives place their main characters in power relationships different from those that are instituted: because they have created spaces that did not exist before, because they have solved some problem in a creative way, because they dare to put passion above profit, because they believe in their dreams. All this, by itself, is already a heroic act in the middle of so much passive acceptance of humiliating situations.
It is hard for me to associate these social transformation experiences to great deeds, to epics; possibly, because the bronze that usually covers heroes tends to conceal their humanity, vulnerability, doubts and mistakes. And in this sense, we think it is important when we rescue one practice to make it visible to avoid falling in the temptation of “covering it up in glory,” of showing it as “life example;” as we would be conspiring against the dignity of such daily actions, so far away from pretentious goals. These practices are what they are because they do not aspire to anything more than fulfilling a dream, a necessary task, such as playing or working as a group, dancing or singing together, reading or caring for, just like that, nothing more. Because doing together is what is transforming.
https://www.youtube.com/user/elagoravideos
https://www.facebook.com/Heroescolectivos/
NGO El Agora
