We had become accustomed to thinking of heroes as beings with exceptional qualities who come to our aid in situations of great need. Popular culture and cinema in particular have left this idea in our retina, that of special individuals who are able to make a difference at crucial moments... However, the COVID-19 global crisis has shown us with harshness, but also with a certain dose of hope, that heroes are not so unique. Nor are they so extraordinary.

The economic and social consequences of this disruptive global pandemic are still unpredictable. But one undeniable change is that from this moment on, the idea of the heroic will be conjugated in the plural. We will no longer wait for a uniquely qualified individual to come along and save us. Heroism has become a common and shared task, carried out by many. 

Because we have seen in recent weeks that the heroes, plural, were not far away. They were those young neighbors who have lent themselves unconditionally to help the elderly who live next door, for example, to take their shopping home. They were the health workers who went out every morning to help others, putting themselves at risk. They were those who voluntarily launched initiatives and collective actions to help in a thousand different ways. They were those who have continued to diligently perform their essential professional duties rather than remain in the relative safety of home. They were all of us who have remained civically secluded at home to protect each other from the spread of contagion. The heroes, at final, have result been all those simple people doing ordinary things in times of difficulty. 

Of course, there are also villains, and very real ones. Those who take advantage of the status for their own benefit, or simply refuse to collaborate in the collective measures that we all try to comply with in order not to worsen the status. This darker side of the human being has always existed. In fact, there is an extensive tradition of social and political thought that starts from a pessimistic vision of man, in which individuals seek their own interests above all else, where a selfishness congenital to human nature prevails. Man is a wolf to man, said Hobbes, and that is why control measures and agreement are necessary to guarantee coexistence and social order... But what we are seeing these days in so many places and in so many different ways shades this pessimistic anthropological perspective. We are witnessing displays of solidarity and altruism every day, both our own and those of others. And, along with this, we are also becoming aware of the long chain of interdependencies and social ties that bind us together as a society. 

Just as we do not feel the weight of the air because we are accustomed to living in it, so too the ties that bind us to others go unnoticed in ordinary times. In this exceptional time, however, these chains of solidarity and common life present themselves to us with an irresistible and necessary force. We become aware with overwhelming evidence of the profound global interdependencies and our social bonds. We are not alone. And this recognition of ourselves together with others with whom we share life, misfortunes and hopes is celebrated every evening at 8 p.m., in a moment of collective communion in which we stage this social union from which we face common difficulties. These are moments of "collective effervescence," in the words of the well-known French sociologist, Émile Durkheim. Such moments reinforce our sense of belonging to a community, and can be highly transformative of social life and collective identity.

No, no extraordinary personage will come to handle the complicated status and return normality to our lives. And this is precisely one of the most revitalizing and obvious lessons to be learned from this global crisis: that together we will succeed in overcoming status. That the chains of solidarity and mutual financial aid are the best instrument against the pandemic. That as a community, as a "we", is how we will find the way out.