Eurovision

Hello and welcome back to my world!

In the meantime since my last post I made plenty of research and even some progress. Let me tell you the most annoying thing about research and empirism is the need for method. It is immensely complicated to work your way through all possible methods and find out which one fits best for your purpose.....content analysis, cognitive mapping, grounded theory, statistical analysis, semantics,.....etc.
The posiibilities are endless and all of them are complicated.
You have to collect the data, code it and then anlyse the correlations between the codes the data and many other components. I spend the last days with this topic and am pretty exhausted with it now.
O will tell you more about practical and useful methods and my experiences with them when I am a little more relaxed. And I will include some good tips for implementation for you guys - we do not have to reinvent the wheel, and we do not have to repeat mistakes.

For now I want to talk about the Eurovision song contest.
[Do not blame me for my words, but taste is nothing to dispute ("De gustibus non est disputandum"). The important thing is the part concerning heroism and not what songs appeal.]

Where is the connection to heroism? you might ask.
1st of all: What is a hero?
It is very hard to find a suiting definition (I am working to create one till autumn!), but there are some concepts to seperate: All different kinds of people might become heroes when they encounter an extreme situation and prove themselves, work for a superior good cause and hold high the values important to them and their surroundings. But it all together has to be very special, almost superhuman and almost impossible deeds.

Now you may ask yourself: What is my hero/heroine like? Outlooks? Talents? Values? Deeds?
And now ask yourself wheter there is a difference between a hero and an Idol??
Very often in everyday life the phrases of heroism are used inflationary in newspapers, movies and private life too. But do those we call heroes really deserve the title? Are they really heroes or only Idols?
They may have accomplished quite big achievements and I will not reduce the honours they deserve (and I congratulate the winners of the Eurovision son contest), but to become a hero needs more than only talent, I believe.

For example: The Austrian participants of the Eurovision song contest - it' a shame for Austria in my eyes - were the Trackshittaz. The song and performance...well, not my kind of taste.
One of them was participant in a show called "Die Helden von Morgen" (Heroes of tomorrow), and did NOT win. But he went to Baku, with the help of lots of PR-work.
Now: Are they really heroes?
I say NO! Maybe, even if it does not fit my taste, they achieved something and accomplished some task, but only for their own good, and they finally failed in the very Eurovision contest.
They tried and lost - happens! But they are not heroes. The task to go there and win is not even close to impossible and they went their to get on with their career. I do not blame them for it, but to be a hero means more than being an Idol or rockstar.

 A hero is usually an Idol, but not every Idol is a hero!

I hope you think it over and see that it is complicated to find a suitable definition for heroism, cause the world is full of persons that match the infaltionary widest sense of heroic terms - idols, stars, civil courage, etc. - but going to the core of heroism means that not everyone is a hero, although heroic traits might exist.
Therefore I will try to discuss what the widest sense of heroism is to get to the core of it.

So next time I will try to talk about civil courage and why some call the heroism of our time.

Farewell! And good luck! Maybe you will become a hero one day, if not then you will still be able to talk about it on high levels of knowlegde - IF you continue to read this Blog! :) ;)
Hope you enjoy!

See you soon,

Angelfox

PS: Preview:
Further probable topics of the next Weeks:
Heroism in conflicts
Heroism in politics
Heroism in the army
Heroism in voluntarism
Heroism and family

Methods of analysis and data collection:
qualitative vs. quantitative and how to implement interviews and questionnaires.
Working with texts, video and audio resources.
How to find important criteria to choose your method.

Hello and Welcome!

Hello!

This is my first entry and my first blog ever! Therfore I want to invite you all to read and enjoy!
First some facts about me: I am social and cultural anthropologist and political scientist, but I am still an all day human! I am a 26 year young "girl", woman, female,...gender terms are a thing aren't they?
I am on my way to my PhD and together with two friends I will do lots of research about heroism in the 21st century.
Diving deep into the materia of heroism I am going to give you impressions of how different heroism can be. I will talk about heroism in movies and newspapers (incl. yellow press), literature, myth,...and crisis.
You will get first hand experiences on how it is to live as PhD student and work your way through everyday life and science at once. You will love and enjoy it for sure - I hope!

And I beg your pardon for mistakes in spelling and grammar. I am not a native speaker of English, but I try hard to improve. It will get better soon for sure!!! Promise!!!!!

Now it is late and for tonight I will leave only a qoute for you to think about for next time:

"The ugly truths must not be linked, 
and the lessons they teach  should be set forth by every historian, 
and learned by every statesman and soldier; 
but, for our good fortune, the lessons best worth learning in the nation's past 
are lessons of heroism."
- Henry Cabot Lodge and Theodore Roosevelt 
        in: Hero Tales From American History


To end my post with the wise words of Louisa Mühlbach (Prince Eugene):

"Farewell! May your  heroism meet with the reward it deserves."

Angelfox