Ok, I will say it. I'm fed up with superheroes. I blame the Marvel cinematographic universe (36 films and counting more than 17 years) and the extended universe of DC (43 films and counting, mainly since the late 1970s). Maybe the earth is not large enough for two universes. They are working a lot in these days, even restarting reset, making sequelae for prequels and pressing each ounce of the intellectual property tube to complete the minutes of the transmission platform.
But it is always Superman. The foreigner born in Krypton, an orphan, sent to the space for survival and then raised by adoptive parents in Kansas. Now he has been with American pop culture for 10 decades (eight in cinema). Despite a modeling attire after a Strong manIt has become a lasting and transcendent symbol of the supreme immigrant and somehow a simultaneous incarnation of “truth, justice and the American form.”
Superman is The Classic American Good Guy, so the opening of this weekend of the new “Superman” with David Korenswet is a good time to think about the true good and girls in American life, that is, if you can find any. Where are all the good and girls in the United States? What qualifies someone for the title these days?
The idea has definitely changed. It is as if by pure screen volume, false superheroes overwhelmed public awareness. The superheroes are marked so high that we can no longer hear how the real heroes sound. A 2008 survey In Britain, almost a room thought that Winston Churchill was false, while most British believed Sherlock Holmes was real.
We have confused ourselves: we prefer to see false heroes on the screen instead of waiting for the real ones in life. And so, the false become the only type of hero we recognize.
Historian Daniel Bortin described This transition from heroism to fame in his 1961 book “The Image”. He pointed out that heroes in American history were typically known for their great public contribution through immense difficulty and danger. It didn't matter how much they looked because their actions had saved lives and imported many.
But photos and movies changed everything in the twentieth century. The heroes became celebrities. We change lasting contributions to the public good in exchange for straightening and striking fame that works for a payment check. Value value; money above all.
This is not difficult to see. Look how university sports have been Conquered by contracts and name image name offers. How law firms realized an administration that demands unprecedented demands. How the heavyweights of the media continue to bend their knees to it. And let's not start with the “influential people” on social networks, except to say that doing the right and honest has been swept by the twin tsunamis of popularity and the almighty dollar.
Where is our real truth, our true justice, our true American form?
Not in Congress. The “Big Beautiful Bill” is a perfect example. It could take a change of image of Mount Rushmore to honor the deep contributions to cowardice in the votes surrounding this law. Representative Jeff Crank (R-Colo.) Could not vote quickly enough to add billions to the national debt despite discussionLess than a year ago, that Congress is “giving a blind eye to this debt of $ 35 billion”, which is “unsustainable” and that “we have to put our fiscal house in order, and we have to do this for our children and our grandchildren.”
Or the representative Chip Roy (R-Texas), Fiscal Falcon for a long time on the debt, who repeatedly He failed the deficit spending of the Big Big Beaf Bill in the final stretch. And then voted for it.
EITHER Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO.), Known to say “we must ignore the calls to cut Medicaid” because “cutting health insurance for poor workers” would be “morally and politically suicidal.” That was in May. But in July, Hawley voted to cut Medicaid.
The final vote was reduced to Senator Lisa Murkowski. In a town hall of mid -June, she saying“I have made it clear from the beginning that we cannot advance with an invoice that makes Medicaid cuts.” And yet, despite the fact that almost 40,000 The inhabitants of Alaska (more than 5% of the state population) will probably lose their medical care coverage as a direct result of the bill, Murkowski yielded.
Sarah LongwellFounder and editor of Bulwark, he spared nothing in his criticism of Murkowski. She wrote that this action “defines our pathetic political moment”, embodying:
“Eygo: I am taking care of me and mine, the rest of you can hit the sand;
Lack of responsibility: I know that the bill is bad, I hope someone else fixes it;
Cowardice: I am afraid of Trump and his voters and I need to go to get along with my Republican colleagues;
Moral Potrena: I know the difference between the right and wrong, and I actively chose. “
Not exactly Superman. It sounds more like Lex Luthor in its most selfish and insensitive form.
We do not need someone faster than a spring of speeding at home. We do not need senators jumping high buildings on a single limit. We do not need Superman.
But we do need our Clark Kents and Lois lanes to intensify. We need our real heroes at this time. Maybe Crank or Roy or Hawley or Murkowski will see the movie this weekend. Maybe they find some courage for the next vote.
Maybe.
ML Cavanaugh is the author of the next book “Best Scar wins: how can you be more than you were before.” @Mlcavanaugh
