I was thinking about this as I was reading Michael S. Malone’s new book, Running Toward Danger: Real Life Action Stories of Heroism, Valor and Guts, which is about the Boy Scouts’ medal for heroism and the estimated three to five million lives saved by scouts since 1910. In creating the Honor Medal for courage and lifesaving, the Scouts wanted to encourage this sort of behavior in boys, and at first they succeeded all too well: Inspired by the medal, scouts attempted rescues for which they weren’t trained. Some died, and the Boy Scouts, together with the Red Cross, embarked on an ambitious training program in swimming and first aid, a program that continues to this day.

But training wasn’t enough. As Boy Scout founder Dan Beard wrote years later, “Without that spirit — the spirit that willingly takes the great risk in an emergency — what use would be the knowledge of the best means to make water and fire rescues, to resuscitate, and the many other things the advanced Boy Scout learns?”

The Boy Scouts are unfashionable today, and so, in many quarters, are the qualities exhibited by the Honor Medal winners, or even by Zaevion Dobson. Courage, quick thinking, an instinct to protect others — these all seem quaint, maybe even obsolete, to many today. Even football is falling out of favor — too much physicality.