Where are the Heroes?This column touches on the
key subject of this blog.
The other day, as I watched my 8-year-old nephew play with a Star Wars action figure, I asked him, "Is Luke your hero?"
With youthful disdain, he corrected me. "This is Anakin Skywalker," he said. "He's a bad guy." Moments later he returned the question: "Who's your hero?"
Oddly, it caught me off guard. I looked into his hopeful eyes, struggling for a meaningful answer, but nothing came. Truth is, I still can't think of an answer.As the writer notes, some of this is simply due to aging. But at the same time, it's also an effect of our culture no longer celebrating the hero, the way the World War II generation celebrated an Audie Murphy, or the WWI generation with Sergeant York.
Here's another writer (I'll tell you who in a moment):
Very early in life, I learned from comics the difference between good and evil, honor and integrity, rational and irrational behavior. Thesse are things I picked up from comics and I think my entire generation experienced that as well, which is something you do not find in comics today. It's impossible to derive any sense of moral or ethical center from the comics today's kids are being exposed to.That is a perfect summary of my own thoughts, from somebody I never thought I would hear saying it. The writer is
Harlan Ellison, best known as the enfant terrible of science fiction in the 1960s, and perhaps the most ruthless demythologizer of heroes in the last 50 years. Even Ellison realizes that something strange has happened in our society when we no longer celebrate the hero.
The pushing forward of heroes into the public eye is one of my major objectives with this blog.
Note: This post is a work in progress. I will add a great deal to it in the future, as the subject matter covered is very important.
