Sunday, April 7, 2013
On Superman
The thing I find most interesting about Superman isn't so much his fantastic powers, but more what he chooses to do with them. I suppose it's fairly common to fantasize about what you would do if you could have super powers. Now there are probably people out there who would immediately try to find a way to make these powers benefit themselves, because what's the point of being super if there isn't some kind of payoff? So maybe using these powers to get a lot of money or a lot of sex or even more power aren't out of the realm of possibility as far as top on the lists for most people. On the other hand there would be people like Superman, who would see these powers as a sort of responsibility to do more than just fly around and be rich. Everyone knows what Superman is all about. He's there to save the day when the day needs saving. Helicopter about to fall onto that field trip of little kids with puppies from the shelter. Superman will swoop in and protect them. Bank robbery where the goons have robotic weapons attached to their bodies and are about to take hostages. Superman will put a stop to it and make it look easy doing so. It's a comic book world so the stories have to be fantastical to keep our attention. Here's a question though. Is what Superman does every day really a good thing?
Sure saving those kids from becoming street pizza is hard to argue against. And bank robbers should probably be stopped, even if there is FDIC. Still what if the person he saved today was someone that wasn't supposed to be saved? Without getting too far along into the Final Destination scenarios, what if that person was supposed to die? Their time was up and while it would have been sad for those who knew them, it was part of the natural order of things. Instead you have this alien wearing a cape with a God complex coming into the situation like a red and blue monkey wrench and changing everything. Sure you could argue that if they were meant to die then they would have. Still someone or better yet, something, like Superman changes the rules for everyone and everything around him. He's an anomaly. On his own planet he's just like us. Fragile and susceptible to the world around him. On our planet thought he's a super man. He can barely be hurt. He defies the laws of physics. And if you believe some of the stories, he may in fact be immortal. A being like that stepping in to save someone from a runaway train is like us diverting the course of a river to save a few insects from getting washed away. A chain of events were set in motion and possibly had a purpose and was then interrupted by a huge X factor.
The other problem with Superman stepping in to save someone from a fatal situations is that once he's done it enough times people will start to expect it. At first people will continue to take every precaution that they normally would. Wearing a seat belt. Putting on a helmet. Not juggling that running chainsaw while riding a unicycle blind folded in busy traffic. When Superman comes along to save them from an accident it will be kismet. He was supposed to be there to save them from harm. Eventually though the expectation that Superman will be there to protect them will override other safety precautions. The construction worker doesn't bother to tie himself to the support beam because if he falls Superman will swoop in and save him from falling to his death. At this point Superman becomes like a parent who is there to catch their child before they fall. In this way people will never know any sense of danger. Sure they may be scared at the time, but in the back of their mind would they just assume that Superman is coming at any minute?
No matter how fast or strong or well-intentioned Superman is, he's still just one man. He can't be everywhere at every time. Even if he were running at 99% efficiency when it comes to saving people there would still be people falling (literally) through the cracks. So how would someone like that have time to have a relationship with someone or hold a day job as a journalist? I don't know much about journalism, but I do know that when they write things, they tend to have to do some kind of research beforehand. That takes time. Superman is going to allow that burning building to continue destroying lives while he gets the quote from the mayor about the upcoming budget talks? How would he even be able to take off the costume if there is something happening every minute of the day? Maybe he just focuses on Metropolis and only gets involved in the really big events that are worldwide? The guy can fly around the globe in minutes so for him knowing something terrible is happening across the country or the world would be like looking across the street and seeing your neighbors house on fire and thinking it's too far away for you to do anything about. Everyone he doesn't save would either be a conscious choice or a failing on his part. It could be he'd have to start doing triage in his head. If I save this commuter train from derailing then I save 250 people, but if I save them then the 45 miners caught in a cave in will die. Does it become a numbers game for him? And would he start having to make judgement calls on who he saves and why? Would it be women and children first and maybe people who are known to be assets to the human race? At this point isn't he essentially playing God?
At this point wouldn't he have so disrupted the natural order of things that everything would be contingent on where he was and what he was doing at any given moment? The things he would be changing are based entirely on what he chooses. Would mankind still be in charge of their own destiny with someone like him around? Granted Lex Luthor is a megalomaniac, but his point about Superman isn't wrong. Having a god-like alien around stops us from achieving our own fate, for good or bad. We are often defined by our failures, sometimes more than by our successes. Only after we've seen the error of our ways or have lost something do we really understand our potential to overcome. Constantly being protected is comforting like a security blanket, but in the end it starts to do more harm than good. I'm not saying that I wouldn't love to have a real life Superman around, if only for the sake of knowing that someone like that could exist, no I'm saying that we should be our own superman and work on being more than we currently are. Capes are optional.
Sure saving those kids from becoming street pizza is hard to argue against. And bank robbers should probably be stopped, even if there is FDIC. Still what if the person he saved today was someone that wasn't supposed to be saved? Without getting too far along into the Final Destination scenarios, what if that person was supposed to die? Their time was up and while it would have been sad for those who knew them, it was part of the natural order of things. Instead you have this alien wearing a cape with a God complex coming into the situation like a red and blue monkey wrench and changing everything. Sure you could argue that if they were meant to die then they would have. Still someone or better yet, something, like Superman changes the rules for everyone and everything around him. He's an anomaly. On his own planet he's just like us. Fragile and susceptible to the world around him. On our planet thought he's a super man. He can barely be hurt. He defies the laws of physics. And if you believe some of the stories, he may in fact be immortal. A being like that stepping in to save someone from a runaway train is like us diverting the course of a river to save a few insects from getting washed away. A chain of events were set in motion and possibly had a purpose and was then interrupted by a huge X factor.
The other problem with Superman stepping in to save someone from a fatal situations is that once he's done it enough times people will start to expect it. At first people will continue to take every precaution that they normally would. Wearing a seat belt. Putting on a helmet. Not juggling that running chainsaw while riding a unicycle blind folded in busy traffic. When Superman comes along to save them from an accident it will be kismet. He was supposed to be there to save them from harm. Eventually though the expectation that Superman will be there to protect them will override other safety precautions. The construction worker doesn't bother to tie himself to the support beam because if he falls Superman will swoop in and save him from falling to his death. At this point Superman becomes like a parent who is there to catch their child before they fall. In this way people will never know any sense of danger. Sure they may be scared at the time, but in the back of their mind would they just assume that Superman is coming at any minute?
No matter how fast or strong or well-intentioned Superman is, he's still just one man. He can't be everywhere at every time. Even if he were running at 99% efficiency when it comes to saving people there would still be people falling (literally) through the cracks. So how would someone like that have time to have a relationship with someone or hold a day job as a journalist? I don't know much about journalism, but I do know that when they write things, they tend to have to do some kind of research beforehand. That takes time. Superman is going to allow that burning building to continue destroying lives while he gets the quote from the mayor about the upcoming budget talks? How would he even be able to take off the costume if there is something happening every minute of the day? Maybe he just focuses on Metropolis and only gets involved in the really big events that are worldwide? The guy can fly around the globe in minutes so for him knowing something terrible is happening across the country or the world would be like looking across the street and seeing your neighbors house on fire and thinking it's too far away for you to do anything about. Everyone he doesn't save would either be a conscious choice or a failing on his part. It could be he'd have to start doing triage in his head. If I save this commuter train from derailing then I save 250 people, but if I save them then the 45 miners caught in a cave in will die. Does it become a numbers game for him? And would he start having to make judgement calls on who he saves and why? Would it be women and children first and maybe people who are known to be assets to the human race? At this point isn't he essentially playing God?
At this point wouldn't he have so disrupted the natural order of things that everything would be contingent on where he was and what he was doing at any given moment? The things he would be changing are based entirely on what he chooses. Would mankind still be in charge of their own destiny with someone like him around? Granted Lex Luthor is a megalomaniac, but his point about Superman isn't wrong. Having a god-like alien around stops us from achieving our own fate, for good or bad. We are often defined by our failures, sometimes more than by our successes. Only after we've seen the error of our ways or have lost something do we really understand our potential to overcome. Constantly being protected is comforting like a security blanket, but in the end it starts to do more harm than good. I'm not saying that I wouldn't love to have a real life Superman around, if only for the sake of knowing that someone like that could exist, no I'm saying that we should be our own superman and work on being more than we currently are. Capes are optional.
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