Everything is about balance.
What I remember about heroism in the Tao of The Dude is nuanced.
As I recall it celebrates a seldom celebrated type of heroism. Individualism. A worthy endevour and it seems an answer to a frustratingly popular definition that is about conformity. I'd almost say it's the exact shadow cast by "The Unsung Hero's" that Reagan conservatism loves to celebrate. The conformist glorified. Basically the Big Lebowski. The version seems to have an appeal to those who traffic in fake heroism. Chest beating. Gun culture, false patriotism etc. As I see it both extremes cheapen genuine heroism. It almost strikes as a sales pitch.
Everyone can be a hero? No they can't! Hero's are rare and idealizing them is a good thing.
The solution to "fake heroism" does not lie in diminishing the importance of heroism in my opinion. Or a whole sale redefinition of it. Inaction is not the solution to misplaced aggression or wrong courses of action. Or even powerlessness.
It is probably true that people create a lot of unnecessary drama in their lives. I call it "shadow boxing".
The drama is real but the way people express it and deal with it is misguided and often self destructive.
"The Hero" as an archetype is an idealized version of humanity but individual hero's are real.
Unfortunately idealization often leads to cheap stereotypes.
False heroism, false patriotism, jingoism these are all ascendant but diminishing the role of courage and selflessness is not IMO a worthy fucking endeavor. Suggesting otherwise is throwing out the bulk of the series.
Great literature, music, poetry. On and on. The way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuatin' it-self, down through the generations, westward the wagons, across the sands a time until-- aw, look at me, I'm ramblin.
Far be it from me to take on the holy writ but I'm on record as being an outlier. There's a lot of Dudeism that I dig but I'm not down with the inaction as a principle or any redefinition of heroism. Am I a Dude? Who the fuck knows. I try to be as Dude as I can be but I refuse to devalue my Walter. And for all his bluster would anyone suggest that in the end Walter is not a hero? Yeah I know Donny. Shut the fuck up Donny! I'm staying. Finishing my coffee. Enjoying my coffee.
IMO the greatest sin of this day and age is that it supplants the greatest things with cheap half ass versions.
Every side is at war with false stereotypes. A fake image of liberalism, conservatism, patriotism on and on.
Creating false drama for sure. But the solution isn't to suggest that real drama isn't real. It's fine to stop hating on imagined "bad guys" but perhaps more now than ever in my lifetime there are real "bad guys".
It's not because of any underlying fault of our ideals. It's because the legitimate version has been supplanted by some pale soundbite fueled cardboard cutout. People have lost track of what's important.
I'd caution contributing another comfortable stereotype to the mix. Is the slacker hero really necessary? And how is he different from your average Ted Nugent apostle? The bottom line is most people are not hero's. That is the fucking point! It's not enough IMO to find your inner dude to be a hero. Any more than it is to fill your basement full of guns and take up a watch against imagined foes.
Fuck it? Yes that's your answer to everything.
Oh fuck.
Lost my train of thought.
What would the dude read.
I'd say in terms of authors a few are obvious.
I'd say Vonnegut is a good bet.
Ken Kesey for sure. One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest being the story of an anti hero.
Tom Robbins. Still Life With Woodpecker.
Persig for sure.
Joseph Heller catch 22
Bukowski
Nikos Kazantzakis. Particularly Zorba the Greek.
Marshall McCluhan- The Media is the Message
Allvin Toffler Future Shock way out of date but it was the shit back in the 70's
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36675260 Doug Coupland is great. Not really the Dude's generation but I think he'd be down with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1l-gJ1qM1UThe part of "Polaroids From the Dead" about the hippies and the Grateful Dead concert captures the Hippie spirit a couple decades on. It ran as a serial version in spin magazine. I can remember working night shift and reading the one part about the old hippie couple. I went out and bought Gen X and a Couple others right away.
How Douglas Coupland's Polaroids from the Dead continues to be a touchstone 20 years laterhttp://nationalpost.com/entertainment/books/book-reviews/how-douglas-couplands-polaroids-from-the-dead-continues-to-be-a-touchstone-20-years-later/wcm/f7db6a82-b64f-4acb-906a-ec59d9131480