To be heroic does not have to mean possessing the ability to stand against the evils of the world, either well or successfully, but just that one is willing to stand.
~ Mike Alsford
The hero, it might be said, is called into being when perception of a need an the recognition of responsibility toward it are backed up by the will to act.
To be heroic may mean nothing more than this then, to stand in the face of the status quo, in the face of an easy collapse into the madness of an increasingly chaotic world and represent another way.