Natalie Angier: Of Altruism, Heroism and Nature’s Gifts in the Face of Terror

Altruism and heroism. If not for these twin radiant badges of our humanity, there would be no us, and we know it. And so, when their vile opposite threatened to choke us into submission last Tuesday, we rallied them in quantities so great we surprised even ourselves…

“For every 50 people making bomb threats now to mosques,” he said, “there are 500,000 people around the world behaving just the way we hoped they would, with empathy and expressions of grief. We are amazingly civilized.”

True, death-defying acts of heroism may be the province of the few. For the rest of us, simple humanity will do. New York Times