You're right, perhaps I've allowed myself to become a bit cynical. I just tend to think that, rather than "heroic" figures our society has awarded outsize rewards (i.e. stupendously humungous amounts of money and/or recognition) we'd be better off looking for "heroic" qualities in people already around us -- and who may be serving in roles far less glamorous: teachers, social workers, parents... or the guy in the next cube, even.

You know, in the spirit of the:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man_theory