Malcolm Gladwell Flaws

825 Words2 Pages

Humans have flaws. It is unfair to hold everyone up to the golden standard of supposed heroes long past whose achievements were definitely compiled with more than a dash of hyperbole. When Malcolm Gladwell says “the convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your behavior.” he is declaring the most base, animalistic urge a human can feel as an inescapable vice for all. The modern era’s theme seems to be finding the dirty secrets of those who deserve praise for extraordinary achievements. Those people are not so extraordinary that they lost their human nature, yet this is not something to shame them for. It is all a person can do to …show more content…

A specific example of a person putting other’s lives before others in a situation where he could have easily done otherwise is American Army Sergeant from World War Two named Sylvester Antolak. Sergeant Antolak charged across 200 yards of completely flat, coverless land far ahead of his squad to draw fire from the fully manned machine gun nest. He was hit three times in the arms and knocked down, yet still got back up and got close enough to kill and capture the Germans in the nest with his submachine gun. Even after that he chose to forgo medical attention and do the same action again on the next machinegun nest 100 yards away. He made it about 80 yards before he was hit again and instantly killed, clearing the way for his squad to make it to the nest and destroy it. I do not know about all of the choices in Sergeant Antolak’s, but I do know that his last ones were truly selfless and based on his care for his men. He could have easily remained to the rear and ordered his men forward, yet he did the opposite and chose to try to save his men by running distraction until he died. Sergeant Antolak decided that his men’s lives were worth giving his own for, a moral shared by many if not all military service members. Sergeant Antolak was one of the far too many who had to prove his belief in the …show more content…

Working in places where there are no or too few trained professionals available to help often at great risk to personal health and always at detriment to their financial and social lives, DWB has saved countless lives in their effort to spread treatment and hope in the world. DWB workers are injured and killed every day while performing lifesaving and life changing work in over 60 countries. Whether they are caring for airstrike victims in Aleppo or malnourished and diseased Africans, DWB workers put a considerable amount of stock in their belief that they are responsible for doing whatever they can for whomever they

Open Document