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Imagine this...
Imagine that the only thing you know about some 30 year old guy is that he is really,
really, really into comic books.
Now, comic books are all about courage, and heroism, and nobility and fighting and triumphing
over evil.
This 30-year-old man is constantly immersed in these heroic tales -- what do you picture
when you think of such a man?
Do you picture a hero?
Or -- not so much?
Would this change if instead of being into comic books, this man was a fanboy of Star
Trek, or Babylon 5, or Battlestar Galactica, or Lord of the rings, or Dungeons & Dragons,
or Star Wars?
Isn't it odd when you think that those men who are most into heroic fiction tend to be
the least heroic people around?
Actually, it isn't that odd, because that is exactly what comic books and science fiction
and fantasy are designed to do.
So – what is the basic message of, say, Star Wars?
It’s that heroism and courage can exist, but where?
Why, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Heroism is never where you are. It is never something you can achieve on your own...
See, in these stories, you don't actually have to do anything in your own life to become
a hero – all you have to do is sit around and whine until some dude in an old blanket
comes along and whisks you off to a life of adventure.
(This also works if you have furry feet. It might be an owl, though, if you are forced
to live under the stairs.)
All these mythologies, which have remained essentially unchanged for thousands of years,
are entirely about enslaving you, and turning you into useful cannon fodder for your masters.
In most of these tales, a depressed life of dumb chores and crushed opportunities gets
magically transformed into heroic – and always violent – adventures when an older
man comes and takes you away.
All this is just designed to make you want to go to war when the state comes to kidnap
you...
Real heroism, however, is something very different from what is always portrayed.
Real heroism is something that you can achieve now, today, in the next hour – if you want.
Real heroism does not require you to be bitten by radioactive spider, or exposed to a gamma
ray bomb blast, or cosmic radiation, or injected with super soldier serum, or pilot giant godlike
robots, or get a blood transfusion from a demon and *** a succubus, or drink radioactive
wastewater in your fishbowl, or crashland from the planet Krypton, or be sprayed by
chemicals that were struck by lightning, or have a magical ring, or be blinded by more
of this omnipresent radioactive stuff, or die and make a deal with a demon to return
to the living world with superpowers, or have rare DNA mutations, or yet another magical
sword – or just have the ability to talk to squirrels...
All these stories have the same message: heroism is not for you. It is for other times, other
places, other worlds, other circumstances, which will never, ever happen to you.
You must wait for someone to come and turn you into a hero. And that man will never come.
You are allowed to be heroic in your imagination, because that way heroism remains an otherworldly
fantasy, posing no danger to the powers that be.
You are just not allowed to be heroic in your own life.
But the world will never be saved without heroes.
You are constantly being trained to be heroic only in the service of your masters. Only
in slaughter and sacrifice and subjugation.
But there is no heroism in serving your masters.
Real heroism is questioning why you have masters at all...
All these stories, all these fantasies, all these superpowers – are designed to steal
heroism from you, to make it impossible and fantastical and remote and unachievable. And
make you useful to your masters as a hit man, if needed...
What is the opposite of this?
The opposite of fantasy is philosophy.
The opposite of mythology is integrity. And integrity is truth in action.
Integrity does not require laser swords, rings of power, magic or starships or mutant genes.
You can be heroic and start the process of truly saving the world before the sun goes
down tonight.
And when the sun rises tomorrow, you will be a different person, and the world will
be brighter by one true hero...