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Hero For Christ

Heroes



by Christopher Sunami
May 1, 2007

Why do people like heroes so much? In particular, why is the theme of heroes and superheroes so popular in American culture today?

The answer is simple. A hero is the personification of a virtue. In a time where people are searching for moral guidance, one of the most satisfying places to look is to a hero. By choosing appropriate heroes as role models, people can place themselves within an functional moral framework. By giving abstract values solid human form, the veneration of heroes is one of the most effective ways to translate a philosophy into action.

Other times and places have shared our obsession with heroes. In ancient Greece and Rome, poets such as Homer wove myths and legends of the great heroes of bygone eras, (as did many other warrior cultures around the world). Later, in the Renaissance, the ancient Greek myths were revived in order to create a new emphasis on human potential and accomplishments.

Of course, all heroes are not created equal, and there are some facets of our current take on heroes that are cause for concern. First, we have an overabundance of anti-heroes; characters with some great virtues, such as courage, but combined with some great failings, such as cruelty. While those combinations of traits make for more interesting fiction, they can become problematic when anti-heroes become popular as role models. Which trait will people choose to emulate? The courage or the cruelty?

Another concern is that many of the heroes of modern discourse are "superheroes," endowed with fantastic powers beyond the reach of ordinary human beings. While such characters are always compelling to the young, the fact that so many adults also also wedded to the concept of superheroes indicates a social devaluation of the abilities of ordinary human beings --a trend also reflected in the pursuit of "super strength" and "super beauty" through steroids and plastic surgery. The ultimate result is likely to either be a sense of escapism or fatalism, where people feel either unconcerned about real-world problems, or unable (as limited human beings) to do much to solve them.

On the other hand, and in contrast towards the trend towards "superhumanism" is a related but distinctively different trend. This second trend is towards the celebration of natural human abilities developed to their limits. Even as traditional sports have become overrun by drug-created monstrosities, new sports have developed such as Parkour and free running where the skills needed defy any attempt to gain them other than that gained through the classic human activity known as "practice".

See Also:

  1. History+of+Humanism
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