Thursday, November 24, 2005

Heroes without wands

So this generation's literature has discovered the mythic story and probably feel they invented it. In the Star Wars sagas, the Lord of the Rings, Medieval romances, and even the Harry Potter series that combines coming-of-age petulance and shifting sympathy with heroism, prophecy, wizardry and magic, we have clearly rejected social realism in favor of the epic romance. And those escapist big epics have proved well-matched to quantum leaps in technical innovations and the big screen.

I'm all for it. There's nothing wrong with having heroes, even the fantasy variety. Every generation has its idols. But it's interesting that today's generations seem to need to turn to fantasy to find them. It seems to me they do so only because they do not find them in the societyat large. They are not evident in their entertainers, their political leaders, their religious leaders or their inventors, scientists, sports figures or writers or academics anymore. And curiously, they used to be, and in abundance.

Oh, to be sure, all fields have leading figures. But none, evidently, inspire admiration or a desire for emulation or imitation by the young as many did before. Ask the young whom they admire, whom they would like to grow up to be like, and you will probably get the name of some current singer or actor or athlete, but none of any career length or history.

I have little doubt that the events of the world will eventually inspire a new realism in the culture and the return of real heroes. I don't know from whence they will emerge, but I think they will most likely result from a re-emergence of the family. I think that the stable family is a necessary precondition to molding solid character and values and instilling the kind of knowledge and creative imaigination, strength and endurance that can lead to the kinds of heroic achievements younger generations will want to emulate.

2 comments:

Carol Anne said...

I must agree with you that stable families and good role models are important to children growing up. I am especially sickened by sports stars who act as if, because they are talented, the world owes them something (Terrell Owens comes to mind). My own idol when I was a kid was Roger Staubach -- there was a guy who just did his job the best he could and never grandstanded.

Stable families are also in short supply, so the question arises about what can be done to help children whose families aren't stable. The best answer is to provide role models that they can relate to -- coaches and teachers and others who can provide the stability that the family doesn't.

I read a couple of years ago about a program that looks to me to be especially promising. It involves taking people -- especailly men -- who have recently left the military, and training them to be teachers in schools where many of the students lack positive male role models. The idea is to demonstrate to the kids that a real man will be responsible and honest. Even if many of these kids don't have a reliable father or some semblance of a father, these teachers will be role models.

Anonymous said...

Interesting blog. I agree that it's very strange that there is a void of 'heroes' and role models in contemporary society, at least in the traditional sense. I wonder if it's that we've become too cynical.

Being a historian I also think it has something to do with revisionist history. It's important, in my view, to go back and evaluate the heroes of the past, but in doing so are we loosing the idea of a model person?

Also I think some of the issue lies with the media. Although there were always journalists looking to pick apart say the president for example, we had less access to personal information. The advent of immediate communication (i.e. the internet) has also changed this. Where as JFK was seen in a Camelot setting and his infidelity was not largely public domain, jokes about Clinton's infidelity spread to thousands in seconds.

I think perhaps we need to get away from the idea of the perfect hero and learn to appreciate that heroes are people and people have faults. In this way if we are looking for a traditional hero (ala the hero in a white hat saving the girl from the villain in the nick of time), we need to piece together our own ideas of what makes a good person and create a collage to look at for our role models. This is perhaps why people turn to fantasy and literature?

Perhaps we put too much pressure on the real people of society and hence are disappointed with them when they falter (as everyone does at some point). So I say the new hero is an idea (or set of ideas), not an individual.

Sorry for babbling on and on, but it's a very interesting topic!

Hope you had a lovely thanksgiving and hope the semester wraps up smoothly for you.