In case you haven’t seen it yet—and if you haven’t, what are you doing?—today we released our Top 10 Good Men of the Year. Obviously, a list ranking the 10 best men of the year was going to garner some controversy. From President Obama to Chris Christie, our choices definitely weren’t met with universal accord.
One surprising point of contention was our choice of the Chilean miners, who nabbed the number-eight spot. While surely not all of them are great men, we argued that they “represented the best of humanity—cooperation for the common good, hopefulness in the face of the most desperate circumstances.”
Bill argued that good men aren’t made by disaster:
These guys are lucky to have survived. I’m not sure what else can be said about them. Sure they retained their composure. Wouldn’t you? I have a problem calling disaster survivors heroes. Good men are not good because they have no other choice. Good men choose to do good, as well-illustrated by the rest of the people on this list. But these guys just got in a jam, and were lucky to get out.
Point well taken. Thanks for commenting, Bill.
—Photo Gobierno de Chile/Flickr
Re-word it……….”Are men made good by disaster?”
I’d not expect the group of miners to be any different from any other group of a similar size.
Give it a year…………….. check each of them for changes in behaviour and then maybe, just maybe, one or two might be genuinely worthy of inclusion.
I think Bill has a point. After all, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to name the rescuers as one of the Top 10 Good Men?