Prejudice: A Fabled Dialogue

During the Second World War, the United Kingdom employed the services of some 250,000 homing pigeons, 32 of whom were awarded the Dickin Medal.  This prestigious honor is bestowed upon animals who have displayed “conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty.”  These noble creatures, because of their uncanny ability to find home over extremely long distances and combined with the altitude of their flight, became indispensable soldiers during this conflict (as well as many others throughout history).  Primarily used to carry communications discreetly across great distances, one American homing pigeon, after having been wounded, saved the lives of 200 soldiers during World War One.  Their tales of valor have been told and retold through the written word as well as film (and probably song, if you look hard enough).  It would be impossible to overstate the important contribution and terrible sacrifice these beautiful creatures have made in defense of man.

The following is not one of their stories.

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“Private S.S.A. Hare, reporting for duty, sir!”

“At ease, private. Welcome to the platoon. What’s your assignment?”

“Intel, sir. I’m a communications expert.”

“Expert, huh? We’ll see about that…what are your credentials.”

“I love the king, I love the throne and I love God… In that order, sir!”

“Indeed. What makes you a comms expert?”

“In the civil sector, I run a private firm that builds and maintains communications infrastructure for use by local markets.  For his majesty, I’ve been doing the same for two years.  It’s been quite a ride, Lieutenant.”

“No doubt.  Well, I think I’ve got just the spot for you…we’ve been having a lot of trouble with our radio equ…”

“With all due respect, that’s not why I’m here, sir.  I asked to be transferred to your unit for a reason.  You see…I understand the Air Ministry Pigeon Section is stationed here and I’d love to be a part of it sir.”

“…I see.  And did you tell your commanding officer about this before you requested the transfer?”

“No sir, I did not.  I thought it best to make the move to this unit and take it from there.”

“Pigeon Section, eh?  That’s dangerous work, you know!  We’ve lost plenty of good men in that nightmare out there…and we’ve seen our share of heroes.  What makes you think you’re the man for the job?”

“Loyalty, sir. Dedication. Fortitude. Love of country.  I know that our soldiers are out there risking their lives every day for the cause…I want to do my best to assist them in their efforts.”

“And you feel you’re suited?  You truly believe that you have what it takes?”

“Absolutely.  There isn’t a doubt in my mind that my desire to serve the throne will drive me to succeed.”

“Very well!  I like a man with confidence!  And how long have you been flying?”

“…I don’t fly, sir?”

“I’m sorry?”

“I said ‘I don’t fly, sir.’”

“And why not?”

“Because I’m a hare.”

“Private, do you care to tell me what makes you think a hare can do the job of a carrier pigeon?”

“Sir, I know the ins and outs of military communication like no one else; I can rewire a busted radio into a working code transmitter with my eyes closed; I love Britain more than life itself…I believe I can do the job.”

“But you don’t fly.”

“No sir.”

“You understand what makes a war pigeon effective is his ability to fly above war zones at altitude, quickly, and over great distances, yes?”

“I understand that is how carrier pigeons work, but I believe I can be just as efficient as a pigeon.”

“I’ll be honest son, as a hare, your skill set does not make you an optimal candidate for the Air Division.  You’re clever, you’re quick…your senses have tested off the charts, if you’re anything like the other hares I’ve worked with…I just don’t see you succeeding as a war pigeon.”

“With all due respect sir, and I don’t mean to offend, but who are you to judge?  You’re a fox!  You can’t fly either!”

“No offense taken, but neither am I a war pigeon.  I entered officer training because I knew that, as a fox, my clever nature would make me ideal for serving the Kingdom in a position of command.  I could desire to be a wolf over in the political arena, a bear on the battlefield or even a lion, like the king himself!  But my desire doesn’t change my nature, son.  I am who I am, and I’ve chosen my own best path based on that knowledge.”

“Yes, sir, but what if someone such as myself desires to be something different?  What if I, as a hare, wanted to serve in a capacity beyond the circumstances of my birth?”

“My boy, we are certainly masters of our own destiny!  The choices we make will shape our lives!  At the same time, we must discern our own strengths and weaknesses, and embrace them! Allow them to show us the path to happiness!  And success!  Only we as individuals can realize our own dream of personal flourishing!”

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“The question of circumstance?  I think it may be important to define our terms…circumstance is simply a condition connected with an event.  It is not the event itself.  For instance, take this bullet: if I were to drop this bullet into this glass of water, would it not sink?”

“It would…where is this going?”

“Watch!  The conditions are: gravity, the presence of a glass of water, the effect of my hand holding and then dropping the bullet…which of these causes the bullet to sink?”

“All of them.  Without any one influence, the event wouldn’t happen.”

“Precisely!  Now private, when I drop this cube of ice into the same glass of water, it doesn’t sink!  All of the conditions have remained the same, but the event of sinking has not occurred!  Why not?”

“Well…because the nature of an ice cube is different from the nature of the bullet.  It’s a simple question of density.”

“Elementary.  In the same way, when the world was blessed with your arrival, private, there were certain circumstances:  socio-economics, education, class, racial bias, political situations and so on.”

“So what?”

“Patience, son, patience.  For your entire life, you are surrounded by circumstance, all of which influence you, none of which control you.”

“Exactly, so why can’t I join the Pigeon Section!”

“Pay attention!  ‘All of which influence you, none of which control you.’  Two men could live a life of very similar circumstances, but would lead a very different life because of their NATURE.  In the same way that the bullet sank and the ice floated, so too do some men sink and others survive in similar circumstances.”

“I see.  I’m the bullet and I’m destined to sink, is that it?”

“No, not at ALL!  Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said?  The ice cube floats and cools the water around it…its nature makes it ideal to provide a cool beverage after a long day.  The bullet sinks, because THAT is not the purpose for which it was designed and created.  If I load the bullet in my pistol, it becomes a weapon, used to protect and defend the throne.  Likewise, if I load the ice into the bullet cartridge and attempt to fire it from my pistol…”

“It would be vaporized.”

“Now you’re catching on.  Continue…”

“Just as the bullet works best when used according to its design, so too the ice.  The nature of the object is what causes it to succeed or fail in different circumstances.  Like mankind.”

“You’ve got it.”

“But the analogy falls flat, lieutenant, because it doesn’t take into account man’s character.  The bullet cannot float, nor can the ice be fired from a pistol, simply by a sheer act of will.  I’ve seen men perform acts of courage against all odds, rise from rags to riches and so on…we are not beholden to our circumstances!”

“Of course not!”

“Then we are back to the original question: ‘What if I want to be something different?’  If I can choose to overcome the circumstances of poverty or racial prejudice, why can’t I overcome nature?”

“Is nature truly something to overcome?  What more is a man than what he is?  Certainly, shouldn’t we strive to be the best version of ourselves?”

“Of course, sir, and that’s why I’ve always wanted to be a war pigeon.  I’ve always associated myself as one– as a child in the country I used to see them going off to perform godly acts of courage and bravery in the name of the king – and I knew that was my destiny.”

“A grand dream, indeed.  And a noble one.  Do you smoke?  I could use a light…”

“No, sir, sorry I don’t…it’s just that, I used to…I used to have dreams, you see?  Dreams of soaring through the skies, bullets screaming, rockets crashing, and delivering that message, or those orders, that saved the lives of an entire platoon.”

“And no one can fault such dreams, or your courage, or your love of country…these are admirable traits.  I’d trade a legion of mindless, unfaithful drones for a single loyal Englishmen.  But we need to know who we are, as individuals, before we commit ourselves to such a noble pursuit as service to the throne…again, it’s our strengths and weaknesses that make us who we are, that define our character, that drive our pursuit of flourishing.  As a wise man once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  Knowledge of self is the key to happiness.  We simply cannot deny our nature…and our character is born from that very nature.”

“So lieutenant, you’re suggesting that my skills as a hare will drive me along the path to greatest happiness?”

“I’m not suggesting it son, I’m telling you.  If you want to be the greatest possible version of yourself, if you want to achieve true success and happiness, you need to obey YOUR potential.  Don’t try to be something that you’re not.  That… is the fastest path to failure.  Can you imagine if all of our carrier pigeons were bears, and all of our infantry were pigeons?  It would be a massacre.”

“I see.”

“You need to be YOU.  Embrace your own identity as a hare, be who you are, and allow the pigeons to be pigeons.”

“…sir?”

“Yes, private?”

“I hear you’ve been having some trouble with your radio equipment?”

“Right this way, my boy!  Right this way…”

Until next time - get out there and live.

TL

Why nobody cares about Superman (but should): a brief study of the importance of a mythology of virtue

                It’s no secret that Superman has struggled in recent years. Since his heyday in the 40’s and 50’s, he’s discovered a weakness greater even than kryptonite: a decline in popularity.  In a market filled with other super-powered, rage-powered, alien-powered, and money-powered heroes, Superman has found himself at a loss as to how to adapt to the changing tastes of his audience.  His name no longer holds the power that it once did, as a multiplicity of very interesting and very cool characters, filled to the brim with humanity, have caught our ever-wandering eye and drawn us away from the Last Son of Krypton.  In the end, however, it is you and I, who will  suffer the loss.

Needs no introduction.

                As film writer Max Landis (too joyously, perhaps) explains in his parody, The Death and Return of Superman, nobody cares about Superman. Enlisting the help of “comedic effect” and multiple celebrity cameos (look out for Frodo Baggins as “The Villain”), the film re-presents the events of one of the most ground-breaking Man of Steel story arcs, in which our hero faces off against the aptly-named villain, Doomsday.  To make a long story short, Superman is killed, only to return to life once again.  This previously unthinkable event is, Landis claims, the last-ditch effort of a comics publisher (DC Comics) trying to make a 50-year-old character relevant again.  Landis states that Superman’s popularity stems solely from his primacy among Superheroes: he was simply the first.  Since then, the genre has spawned innumerable heroes with similar or even identical powers, and one power, according to Landis, even greater: “pathos.”

Plato and Aristotle, talking about last night's Swamp People, probably.

                “Pathos,” as used in literature and art, is an appeal to the emotions of the audience.  In short, it is used to stir up a desired emotion in order to convey a specific message to the audience.  The concept of Pathos was most notably expounded upon by Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher and student of Plato.  He described it as a method of persuasion by which one would utilize emotion in order to manipulate the audience.  Contrast this with alternative methods of persuasion: “ethos,” by which a message is conveyed by the character of the speaker/author, and “logos,” (literally “word”) in which logic is used to arrive at a truth.  In short, there are three methods by which to communicate a particular message: Pathos (emotion), Ethos (character), and Logos (logic).

                Back to Landis.  He suggests that “pathos” is the ultimate appeal of superhero stories.  For the reader, the importance of the story lies in its ability to stir up emotion.  I couldn’t disagree more.  Sure, emotion draws us in, it helps us to see ourselves in the story, but I believe there is more to superhero stories than emotion.  I believe there is truth. 

                Something bizarre happened in popular culture around the turn of the 20^th century.  It began in the United States in the 1990’s and spread to the rest of the globe with the new millennium.  Millions of people were glued to their television screens with one question in mind: “Who will be voted off of the island?”  Of course, I’m referring to the phenomenon of reality television.  Everything from The Real World, to Survivor, to Big Brother, to (God help us) Here Comes Honey-Boo-Boo: we couldn’t get enough.  These television shows, designed to entertain, did more than just that: they helped us to feel.  Whether it was disappointment that our favorite celebrity fell in Dancing with the Stars, relief that our guy/girl made it through on American Idol, or confusion/elation at the hijinks of those kids on Jersey Shore, we felt something that we believed was real.  Sometimes we laughed, sometimes we cried, but there was never a dull moment.  Pathos to the extreme.  There was also very little of worth.  Pure entertainment – nothing of substance.  It’s like we cried a collective shout (undoubtedly in the voice of Kurt Cobain): “HERE WE ARE! NOW ENTERTAIN US!”  And we got just that.

In the early 21st century, 3000 years of Western Civilization culminated in this.

                Herein lies the problem.  Culture needs to do more than entertain; it needs to instruct.  The stories and characters that we create do so much more than give rise to emotions.  They inform our own society (as well posterity) of just WHO WE ARE.  TAKE A MOMENT TO LET THAT SINK IN.  That you and I are members of the culture that creates an art form, means that we are reflected in that very art from.  So when WE watch Duck Dynasty, like it or not, it’s like looking in a mirror.

                “What does this have to do with Superman?” you might ask.  “Everything,” I might respond.  By latching onto these types of stories, “real” stories about “real” people, we focus our attention on characters (and in the case of reality TV shows, media) that are deeply flawed.  After all, we are all flawed and can relate to others who are also flawed (sometimes to the extreme).  One complaint I often hear about the character of Superman, is that he is “too powerful.”  In other words, “he’s nothing like us: how can he have an interesting story if he’s nothing like us?”  This might be why someone like Max Landis would think it was important to kill Superman: at least this way he can die – he’s unlike us in all things but death.  That at least is something (finally) that we share could with Superman.

                Connecting ourselves to our stories primarily through emotion ignores two UNIGNORABLE concepts: ethos and logos - Truth with the power to transform.  By its very nature, the superhero story is unrealistic: it is about someone who can do things that ordinary people cannot.  They routinely show the impossible.  Feats of superhuman strength, unassisted flight, near invulnerability, etc. are all commonplace in the superhero story, yet unheard of in the real world.  What Superman displays (aside from these powers), is a strength of virtue.  The desire to do that which is best.  Historically, he is driven by “truth, justice and the American way.”  What else is truth but logos, and justice but the practical application of that truth (which shows itself through character – ethos)?  In short, Superman embodies the ideals of truth, justice, virtue and goodness.  We hold such a story up as a model.  Superman is meant to be an example of the best possible version of ourselves.  As stated in Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie (1977)*, “(Humans) could be great people…they wish to be.  They only lack the light to show the way.”  This concept appears to have found a new incarnation in Zack Snyder’s upcoming film, Man of Steel: “You will give the people of earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you; they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.”  When we break from a myth of virtue and truth, embracing instead stories of weakness and vanity, we deny our true identity: a people who are intrinsically good and capable of wonders!  In his magnum opus, Kill Bill, writer/director Quentin Tarantino comments on Superman’s identity.  Following is a clip from that film:

                “Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero and there’s the alter ego.  Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker.  When that character wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker.  He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man.  And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone.  Superman didn’t become Superman.  Superman was born Superman.  When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman.  His alter ego is Clark Kent.  His outfit with the big red “S” – that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him.  Those are his clothes.  What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that’s the costume.  That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us.”

                I propose that you and I share this unique “alter ego” situation.  Just as Superman disguises himself as Clark Kent, so too are we the stewards of truth, beauty, and goodness.  Those ideals dwell within our flawed humanity.  We are a “great people,” we can “accomplish wonders,” facts which have been demonstrated by  great men and women throughout history – and sometimes it takes incredible acts of selflessness and fortitude in the name of those ideals to stir them up in us (witness the examples of Socrates, Jesus of Nazareth, Martin Luther King Jr., etc.)!  THIS is why a mythology of virtue is critical: a mythology of virtue preserves and defends transcendent truths (logos), while at the same time transforming us into the “superheroes” we were meant to be (ethos).   They help us to see the difference between how things are and how they ought to be.

                I have yet to see the new film, Man of Steel, so I can’t comment on its quality or presentation of the story; I can only hope that it suitably preserves the Superman mythos – giving us an “ideal to strive towards,” showing us the best possible version of ourselves.

Until next time – get out there and live.

TL

*This links to the Superman Returns trailer, which borrows Marlon Brando’s epic words from 1977’s Superman.