Heroes, Victims, and Society

The Heroes

When I was younger I, like many children, aspired to be a hero. Inspired by popular media I imagined overcoming great obstacles and accomplishing extraordinary things all in the name of a perceived "good". The nature of that "good" was ever-present, ever-evolving, yet always ineffable. However, very few people like to imagine themselves as being the bad guy which only leaves the intangible "good" when entertaining visions of grandeur. And of course, there must be an evil against which my imagined goodness would prevail. Every novel and movie has its villain so, therefore, must my life if my accomplishments are to be truly heroic. 

I aged and found more worldly foes to face. School, teachers, jobs, bosses, and so on. While proud of what I have accomplished, the itch to achieve true greatness does not cease. It does not rest. Whether that itch is an integral part of human nature or simply a product of what I've been conditioned to believe is expected of me, I can't tell. Regardless, it is an itch that I do not believe is possible to be fully scratched. My desire to achieve is never satiated with my achievements. I may feel a moment of respite, but inevitably the discontentedness and restlessness always come. For most of us, our day-to-day accomplishments will never come near matching what we envisioned as children. Our feats will not be heroic, our obstacles to success will not be deeply evil or villainous, and our problems will mundane. 

So what do we do with this disappointing reality? How do we cope when the aspirations of our inner-child turn to dust? The answer is simple, we refuse reality. We create villains in others, we create struggles for ourselves, we find a way to make our lack of achievement seem heroic simply by the virtue of overcoming the perceived hardship of the world around us. By doing this we not only find a way to fit the heroic image we have of ourselves, but we find a way to justify both to ourselves and to others any shortcomings or sub-heroic behaviors. 

The Victims

I do not recall the exact moment during which I realized that I would never be a hero in the way I had always imagined. I doubt it was a singular moment but rather it was more probably the slow disillusionment of growing up. I do, however, clearly recall how I turned myself into a victim. I raged against an abstract system that I believed to be so oppressive. I brooded over the unfairness of life and over the disadvantages I faced. I viewed myself not as an individual with a unique set of life circumstances that permitted both advantages and disadvantages, but rather as a member of an oppressed class that would forever be disadvantaged. It was at the membership of that class to which I pointed when I contemplated my lack of accomplishment. Any achievement of mine was made heroic due to my membership, and any failure perfectly justifiable. I was able to point to members outside of the class and name them not just advantaged, but enemies. 

Fortunately, I have since grown past this perspective. When I see others stuck in this way of thinking I feel only a sense of pity, much like a recovered alcoholic feels when speaking to one who is still in the depths of their addiction. It is not a feeling of superiority or condescension, just a sorrow, as I know the pain they feel and the clarity that awaits if they could move past it. Yet again like the alcoholic, a change can only come from within. No words can move them if they do not wish to move. I can't blame any individual who embraces this way of thinking. While I know it to be incorrect, I also know the freedom it permits. False freedom, to be certain, but freedom all the same. There is an extreme comfort in not feeling wholly responsible for your own success. The burden of responsibility and expectation are taken away. Disappointment in oneself is manifested instead as resentment towards others. What pains me is not the individuals who fall for this cognitive trap, but rather the more recent broader societal acceptance and perpetuation of it. 

The Society

As a society, we are embracing the aforementioned mentality. Slowly we see the erasure of the weight placed upon an individual's own virtue and iniquity. That weight is being slowly and continuously shifted to the class in which that individual is perceived to reside. As the weight continues to shift, so does the growth of the division between these perceived classes. And as the division grows, the weight shifts all the faster. Individuality is being snuffed out in the name of social identity. The defining characteristics of a human are starting to consist not of who they are, but of what they are. This is the slow degradation of society. Divisions will continue to grow, responsibility will become something to be laid at the feet of a societal class, not to the individuals with whom it belongs. I do not know if there is a solution to this issue. I do not pretend to be able to see the path back to salvation. All I know is that I will hold true to my own individuality, I will not allow myself to become a victim nor will I willingly align myself with any societal class. I will not assign a class to anyone else. I will respect and condemn individuals independent of social influences and without letting their actions reflect upon anyone else in my mind. I will judge people based on who they are, and not on what group society deems they should belong to. These are but a few of the principles by which I vow to live, and that I will spread to others if given the opportunity.