Theos-Talk Archives (November 2004 Message tt00226)

Hello Adelasie,

Yes, interesting point. Perhaps the media has created a connotation of 
a hero as "almost superhuman." It appears that Superman and Batman are 
modern renditions of, say, Hercules in Greek myth. Then again, 
Hercules superhuman strength was well counterbalanced by very human 
character flaws. The media, on the other hand, has a Superman were 
character weaknesses are replaced with a single 
vulnerability--kriptonite. 

Now that you have me thinking about it, the Superman myth seems to fit 
very well with how about half of this country perceives our President, 
who like Superman, uses his awesome strength (in his case, unmatched 
military power) in order to bring "truth, justice, and the American way" 
to the Middle East, and perhaps, if he has time, to the rest of the 
world. 

I can't think of a current term to express the Greek idea of Hero. 
"Role model" might do it, if we understood a role model as one who 
demonstrates by his/her flaws, what not to do, as well as by his/her 
strengths, what to do.

--j



adelasie wrote:

>Hi Jerry,
>
>Yes, you could say we live in cynical times. Perhaps if we didn't 
>call it "hero," which has a connotation of someone almost superhuman, 
>someone we look up to, but rather stressed the idea of becoming 
>conscious of the qualities in others, those fallible people in our 
>daily lives, who possess some quality we admire. Our cultural love 
>affair with the media, with entertainment, has sort of provided the 
>impossible definition of "hero," Superman, Batman, etc (interesting 
>how little children love that stuff, and how we all kind of long to 
>love it--hearkens back to the Gods on Olympus or something maybe) and 
>that very overstatement makes the word, the concept, a parody of 
>itself. Still, I think we do look up to certain public figures. 
>Perhaps what is happening is that the old concept of "god," the 
>original superhero, is morphing into a more inclusive awareness of 
>the divinity in everyone. 
>
>Adelasie
>
>On 16 Nov 2004 at 10:50, Jerry Hejka-Ekins wrote:
>
> 
>
>>Hello Adelasia,
>>
>>There was a time when "the hero" filled that function of teacher and
>>exemplar. The hero was the person who demonstrated excellence in some
>>area and modeled one or more virtues. When I first started teaching
>>college composition courses, I had a list of questions for students to
>>respond. Among them was "who is your hero and why?" I found out
>>quickly that, except for an occasional essay about the student's
>>mother or father, most would answer that they don't have a hero. They
>>would explain that whenever someone is offered as a hero, within a
>>short time, some scandal about them hits the news and exposes them for
>>what they are. I think it a sad commentary about our times.
>>
>>--j
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>>
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