A while ago most superhero’s on TV were quite light hearted and friendly, but nowadays it’s about who makes the darkest hero with the most disturbing past.
Compare Adam West’s Batman to Christian Bale’s. It’s not just the acting that took a surprising change but also the cinematography, the music, the guilt, the emptiness and the overall feeling of sadness. It seems harder and harder to find the moral of these stories whilst the depth has gone much further than the Riddler’s riddles. And today we have superhero’s that are beaten to a pulp, they kill others for their own vengeance and some of the new ones are even raped and tortured. So why the change?
The answer is much more than light verses dark. After many flashes of terrorism, death, lack of compassion, hurt and murder on the 6 o’clock news it isn’t any wonder that our fantasies are laid out in a desolate place. And this is where it all begins.
Now sure, there are still some fluffy villains out there, and I can’t wait for DC’s next screw up, though for the majority of these TV shows and movies we are seeing excessive murder and hopelessness. And this is because in our minds we are closer to the fantasy than our actual reality.
A reality is nothing more than our perception, and of cause, what we focus on we head towards. And what we have been focusing on recently is what we can’t do rather that what we can. This makes us feel helpless and useless. Within this world of isolation where we fear making friends with our neighbours, we need to believe in more than just someone fighting for a cause. Instead, we need a hero, a single person that represents the goodness within ourselves that can fight the battle of evil for us. We wish we were that person and we wish that we have the power to make a change.
In many ways, the glimmering superhero is a sign that there is goodness within us. That we want to see more within this world than what we currently perceive exists. We believe that something can be done yet we feel helpless towards a resolve so we create someone else to do it for us. Yet the reality of what we can achieve is much greater than what we perceive.
Believe it or not, the world is a beautiful place full of love, peace and contentment. There is as much peace as there is evil even though it is not shown on the nightly news. And although these fictional characters seem to set standards far too high for a single person without superpowers, their power is within our grasp.
Think of life like an ocean. When we do something nice it makes a splash and the ripples reach out further than the eye can see. Just because we can’t see where the ripples end it doesn’t mean that we haven’t made a significant change. Kindness and compassion rarely display instant results, though eventually, if we remain aware and present, we can see what has really been achieved. Maybe we will only see a glimmer of hope or inspiration within someone. Maybe a simple optimistic conversation generates positive energy within their soul which they will take to others. Or maybe it’s just a smile that we give to a stranger that makes a person think ‘wow, not everyone’s a wanker!’ Who knows? But it’s these little things that make a real difference.
So what is a superhero?
A true hero knows the meaning of the word power which is defined in the dictionary as ‘the ability to act’. A hero acts. And although we can’t shoot webs from our fingers, fly through the air or run faster than a speeding locomotive, what we can do is affect a person’s perception of their world. And what is the world but seven billion perceptions. Our reality is based on what we focus on, so by helping people see the good side of the world we are making a tremendous change. From there, who knows how far our ripples will travel.
There are many types of hero’s out there in the world. We can’t all save lives, but we can certainly make sure that those that live on this earth have the ability to see a joyful one.
The Lonely Spaceman 