Sub-Hero

Have you ever, and you may not have, been embarrassed or ashamed by your  heritage?  You may come from a people that have committed atrocities or have certain attitudes of types of people.  In history we read that many people have died in the 20th Century.  World War I saw the advent of wide spread chemical warfare, of the tank, and of the airplane bomber.   Thousands died in it.  Then thousands died under the Third Reich due to pure racism.  Thousand also died in the Soviet Union under Stalin.  Thousands died in China in the cultural revolution.  The killing fields of Cambodia were striking.  Murders upon murders in South and Central America were horrifying.  And what is yet to be told of the bloodiness in North Africa under the dictators of Egypt and Libya and others?  The genocide in Central Africa also comes to mind and many more incidents.  It was a bloody century, perhaps the bloodiest of them all.  What if you came from the people who committed those atrocities, or a people who had the attitude that lead to the massacre of thousands?  What if you were ashamed of these attitudes and tried to counter them?  I dare to coin a term for this, a sub-hero.  I will endeavor to define what a sub-hero is and does.

A sub-hero hates.  Of the first steps a sub-hero makes is that of realizing and hating the heritage of murderous attitudes.  He/She owns them.  He/She puts intent to not repeat them, ever.  He/She mourns the loss of lives and the loss of dignity.  The past is past and the sub-hero does not dwell in the past but looks to the future.

A sub-hero warns.  Any time the sub-hero encounters the murderous attitudes, their blood goes cold.  They cringe at it, and sneer at it.  Then the verbal counter to these attitudes comes out.  Due to tactfulness, a fight with the promoters of these attitudes can be adverted.  Loving the promoters as well as the victims is necessary to the sub-hero.  If he/she looses them then the war is lost.  Getting others to shun these murderous attitudes is the key.  Thus the sub-hero guards the sanctity of love and peace.

A sub-hero is not praised.  There is no honor to being a sub-hero.  The very nature of their state is shameful.  They may not reveal their identity with the atrocious heritage.  Who would praise them?  Who would look up to them to emulate?  None dare.  A sub-hero's path is lonely and ungrateful, and yet it's necessary.  It's a cross to bear and a penance to perform.

A sub-hero hates, warns, and is not praised.  This is a first definition of this term.  This World needs sub-heroes.  Our societies need healing.  Our people need teaching.  If the human race is to take the next step towards enlightenment, then murderous attitudes need to be left behind.  We need to grow up and face each other with our problems and work them out rather than having the cowardly cop-out of murder.

Careless Devastation

I hate violence.  In Spain there was a separatist terrorist group known as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA).  They fought for freedom for three provinces in the north of the country.  I read an article in a newspaper one day that said a couple of guys from this group threw a grenade at a 9 year old girl, killing her.  The report sickened me to my very core.  What kind of thinking would lead to such an act?  Violence is a useless and sickening tactic used by diseased minds.

The Cold War years brought about a unique situation in Europe.  You see on one side there was the United States.  On the other side was the Soviet Union.  They both had the capability of blowing the World to kingdom come.  Smack dab in the middle of them was Europe, and it was split between the west and the east.  As depicted in many spy stories, including those by Ian Fleming, Europe was a playground for spies.  This also lead to covert operations and violence behind closed doors.  Two movies depicted this era that also showed the callous violence and apathy of human life.  The first movie was a 1986 film called Born American.  This film depicted some western college students that wandered over the border to Russia, and got captured and tortured.  There was a diplomatic envoy to negotiate their freedom.  In a twisted scene the envoy participated in the rape female prisoners after a dinner with his Soviet counter part.  The message was the students were on their own.  Only one of them made it out by sheer determination.  The other movie was a 2006 film called The Good Shepherd.  This film depicted the covert operations of the early CIA through the life of Edward Wilson.  Wilson headed the operations.  In the process he betrayed his love, his friends, his wife, and his son in the name of king and country.  He covered up violence, he ordered violence, he cause violence.  For example he had the fiance of his son thrown out of a plane in mid flight because of suspicions.  He also had a man tortured to the point of suicide.  In the end he is left a very lonely pathetic man, with a life of betrayal and violence.  Both of these movies were based on real stories.  As fictionalized as they were, they did depict the heartless violence that went on during the Cold War.  A violence not unlike the systematic humiliation and killing of people in the gas chambers of the Third Reich.  What kind of person are you if you commits such atrocities?

In the Americas, there is a history of violent acts for power and money.  During the civil war in El Salvador I heard of terrible atrocities. One was of a young woman who was kidnapped.  She reportedly was tortured and raped multiple times.  Then they dismembered her arms and legs, bolted a board to her back an left her at her mother's doorstep barely alive.  How brutal can you be?  How inhumane, and how inhuman.  More recently the murders in the northern Mexico city of Juarez  the murder toll for 2010 reached 3000.  That is a lot of souls.  That is also a lot of families suffering.  Taking that many lives can cause people to become callous about any living being and resort to a mindset not suited for society.  In the Time Magazine article by Jeffery Kluger titled Inside a Mass Murderer's Mind it asks the question what makes a killer.  This 2007 article came about as a result of the Virginia Tech murders.  One of the answers the article give is that of narcissism, that is the complete opposite of empathy.  By committing brutal acts we can become so callous to the lives of others that we don't stop.  It can become like a high, something we crave.  This is what is called bloodlust.  The reason there are capital punishment laws is for people who go this route, and societies inability to cope with them.

What does violence do to the person who commits it?  Violence takes away from that person all that is sacred, all that is human and makes him into a machine, a killing machine.  It is said that to hate is to commit murder (1 John 3:15).  An apathetic killer is one who cares not.  They don't care for anyone.  They do care about their short term purpose.  In the end they hate themselves, because they bring about their own demise.  Its a destructive path to go the violent route.  I'd rather go the empathy route and build up people, give them relief and shelter.  We all have the daily choice of being constructive or destructive.  I hope you choose wisely.

Ain't One Of Us

Have you ever looked at a person and found they are not like you?  Discrimination is a big problem in today's world.  People are being discriminated based on sex, race, age, disability, learning ability or a number of other categories.  Why does this occur?  We all do it or think it.  I theorize that the problem is based on our outlook as humans.  The source of discrimination is the attitude people get that says "they ain't one of us".  When people take no group ownership of other people this causes discrimination.  We need to change our outlook of what our community actually includes in this day and age of global economy and global communication.

Its a matter of preserving the group or village.  Humans are community based entities.  We structure our society based on our concept of who we know and how we interact with them, whether it be practical interaction or cognitive empathy.  We naturally consider anyone or anything outside of the community as a potential threat.  We also show a blind eye towards the shortcomings of those in our community.  Therefore we have bias.  One of the first things we do with potential threats is that we demonize them.  We talk among our community and bad talk the potential threats.  Thus, this is where discrimination starts, and it evolves into hate and violence.

Modern man needs to expand his outlook and understand that everybody on the planet is part of his community . He needs to change his mind, from a mindset of living in just a local community to one that matches the structure of a global community working for the same thing.  Humans across the planet are generally working for freedom, economic success, and peaceful life.  We have disputes and wars, but these only stifle our efforts for our posterity.  It takes intelligence to recognize this, but it takes courage to do something about it. What are we really going to leave our sons and daughters with?

We all belong to one big village, Earth.  Look at the stars and count them.  Thus is the old old challenge to people and kids.  If you look at the sky through pictures of many space craft and telescopes eyes, you can see wonders beyond belief.  Super Novas, Gamma Ray Bursts, Nebulas, Super Black Holes are just a few wonders that are vastly greater than our planet.  If you haven't done so you might want to check it out at hubblesite.org.  You get the sense that Earth is an oasis in a desert of blackness and wild energetic stuff.  We are small, yet we are alive.  Earth is our planet and the people on it are our people.  If we are to continue as a society we must embrace this concept.  We need see how useless our petty infighting really is.  We must own all humans, animals, plants on Earth as our community, and as our village.

The realization that our community has expanded over the last 40 years can change our attitude towards others.  Our community is big and beautiful and its name is Earth.  We have global travel with the advent of the Jumbo Jet, and we have global communication with the internet.  We need to get rid of discrimination.  The first step to do that is to include everyone on the planet as part of your community.  This way you can interact with others with empathy.  This does not preclude steps you need to take to protect yourself.  You can empathize and protect yourself at the same time.  Empathy is the way to go.  In the area of relating to others, if you empathize you can engage people in a constructive way.  The time to change is now.


Disclaimer: This post is based on my opinions only.