Superheroes, Saviours and Sanctimonious Sacrifices

As the first order of business in my collection of ramblings I would like to launch a full on attack on Superman, Batman, the entire league of Avengers, Jesus, Gandhi and motherfucking Mother Theresa.
Yes, the subject is heroes, saviours and sanctimonious sacrifices.

As a species we are conditioned to believe that there is no act more noble than that of selfless sacrifice to save those around you. We are raised with dreams of superpowers, so that we could be these masked heroes. The white knights coming to rescue the weak and helpless.

The problem – We do not have superpowers. We are all born equally, we have the same opportunities and the same constitution (or at least we would like to believe that). Mulling this subject over in my head I could not help but feel there is something very perverse about this ideology.

Let’s start with superheroes. We have recently been bombarded with a garrison of spandex wearing vigilantes ranging from Batman, to Thor to Justin Bieber (Oh wait he has no superpowers, he just looks like an idiot). Surprisingly the favour of the crowds flocking to the big screens to see the next scene of complete city destruction resides with the anti-hero. Yes, people go to see the Joker or Wolverine with his inner conflict. People do not care for the righteous crime fighter anymore. If The Avengers movie had a survivor motive to it, that Captain America prick would have been voted off before the evil guy with the Timotei hair. The reason – We could relate to the anti-hero. Superman and Captain America are the Brady bunch of today’s fantasy. No-one can relate to their righteous fight to protect honour, courage and blah blah blah. See I already started to bore myself there.

Young Steven is still waiting for his web powers to settle in after eating 8,000,000 radio-active spiders

Now let’s look at the real life examples. Mother Theresa, Ghandi and Jesus (I am including him in here, because he did not have any super powers of any relevance except for resurrection right at the end). With the lack of super powers they have played the role of saviour through sacrifice. Dedicated their lives to save those in need one small step at a time.

Greater insight could be drawn from real life examples in our current lives. We all have these people in our lives who just want to help. You know those people who volunteer at the school to make cupcakes for everyone. The people who send mails about abandoned puppies, children’s homes and plants which leaves started to brown. Those people who immediately show up when you are depressed, and are there to console. Now, I don’t believe for one second that you think these people do this out of selfless motives. No, they find their sense of purpose from saving those less fortunate. Whether it stems from guilt or merely just to act superior. These acts are not completely selfless. This is why I call this the greatest Kansas City shuffle of all time. The actual intent is completely selfish and fulfills a need in the donor, whilst the public perception is that this is a complete selfless act. For those of you who believe this is a complete sacrilegious statement, and these people cause no harm, please read on…

The next question which came to mind was: Who saves Jesus? (I know traditionally the answer is God), but indulge me for a second and look at this question as a metaphorical one. Who is Superman’s saviour? My answer: Lex Luther. You see, I will not write a story about Superman doing grocery shopping in middle class suburbia after he picked up the kids from school. No, Superman owes his entire existence to the villain, without him, there would be no Superman. The saviour’s existence hinges entirely on the presence of a villain. Without the challenges presented to these heroes, saviours and lambs to sacrifice, they will not be who they are. Which means that every hero deprives those they save from their opportunity to be the hero of their own story. This is what these saviour types take from us, despite their irritating holier-than-thou attitude, they actually deprive us from our own opportunity to step up and save ourselves. They do cause harm! This all came together for me when I saw a tattoo that read:

“I am the hero of this story I don’t need to be saved”

So, in conclusion, I believe the saviour in the cape or the white knight on his steed is yet another childhood fairy-tale which could be chucked in to a box along with theories of true love and happily ever after and burned. It’s time to swallow two teaspoons of cement and harden the fuck up to reality. Become the hero of your own story, tell saviours to fuck off and find your real saviour in a villain, for only they could inspire you to fly.

Chautauqua - I'm bringing it back

Chautauqua - Entomology, sociology but not Scientology

I first came across this word whilst reading “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance”. In this book, the author - Robert M. Pirsig, describes his chapters as Chautauqua’s, which roughly describes themes of thought. A Chautauqua was an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The Chautauqua was a hipster form of what we know as TED talks today. It brought entertainment and culture through speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers and specialists of the day. These events moved throughout rural America in the form similar to a traveling circus, with tents and live entertainment schedules. The word Chautauqua was also used by H.L Mencken to describe a herd of clumsy writers.

I see the Chautauqua as a more modern representation of the discussions held by Greek philosophers in the town square. I find this whole concept fitting for the name of my blog, since it represents discussions on burning societal themes in a public forum.

Religious topics, political satires, lectures and musical performances were the main themes represented in the Chautauqua. I hope to steer this blog along the same chalk lines.

The boys watched in horror as their father and sister/aunt/mother gave a live rendition of the "birds and the bees" thinking: "wait a minute, this isn't the circus".

As a closing to the start of my spell book of Chautauqua’s I would like to leave you with a bit of wisdom from the most famous speaker at the Chautauqua’s.  His name was Russel H. Conwell and he delivered this speech more than 6000 times at different Chautauqua’s around the world. The story is called “Acre of diamonds” and it was first published in 1890. The central idea around the speech is that one need not look elsewhere for achievement, opportunity or fortune – the resources to achieve all good things are present in one’s own community.

"I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich.... The men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community. Let me say here clearly .. . ninety-eight out of one hundred of the rich men of America are honest. That is why they are rich. That is why they are trusted with money. That is why they carry on great enterprises and find plenty of people to work with them. It is because they are honest men. ... ... I sympathize with the poor, but the number of poor who are to be sympathised with is very small. To sympathize with a man whom God has punished for his sins ... is to do wrong.... let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings. ..."

This view is a bit alternative to our traditional view that rich people are all conniving and that you cannot get to the top without trampling those below. Well, I must say I tend to agree with mister Conwell in certain aspects.

Give me a man who could stay afloat with a bit of power and responsibility and I will trust him above anyone who is yet to prove their moral stance with the burden of power.