Whose Turn Is It To Be The Hero?

Right, so I was talking to a friend awhile ago, and he was having some trouble with a bully. And one of the things he said got me thinking. He knew that he could ignore the guy, because he'd done it, and it'd worked. Solved, right? Not really. See, he also wanted to be the guy to cut this guy down to size. He wanted to be the Hero. I know that I've seen a bully and wanted to put them in their place. I'd be surprised if everyone hasn't thought that one time or another. Even if it's not their business, or if they know it's best to just let it go...You want to be the person to punish this bully. "What goes around comes around." "You reap what you sow." Yeah, well, it's often the case that people want to be the person that makes that happen. You don't want to wait till the person is forty, and all alone...Because, hell, that probably wont happen.

So dealing with that little gem of life, what do you do? Why do we, the human race, but probably especially males, want to knock them off their high chair? I've got a couple of ideas. Number 1: What's more masculine then beating up the most masculine guy around, the tough guy? Number 2: Resentment. Nobody likes to be picked on. And it feels sooo good to put them in their place. Number 3: Glory. And Number 4: Because I don't think too many people actually feel that you reap what you sow. There's too many corrupt politicians that seem to get by fine, and a million others who just abuse, use, and take...And nothing is done.

So why not go all John Wayne, Rambo, or Patrick Swayze(Patrick Swayze?!? Watch Roadhouse. I watched that movie after my friend talked about it. It only reinforced this topic for me. It's pretty much exactly about what I'm talking about.) Somebody needs to protect the people of the world. Except that it never works out that way...Generally it works out like it does in the comedies. Geeky nerd takes a swing at jock bully...Gets whooped. And then everyone gets suspended.

Mostly, I just think it's interesting that we have what I shall now refer to as The Hero Syndrome. I think this is a contributing factor behind some of our greatest achievements...And our greatest failures. It has led to countless acts of bravery and selflessness. And it has led to wars. Hundreds of them, leaving uncounted numbers dead. I suppose THAT's what really interests me. The inherent complexity and confusion in the Human character. The black and white. There often doesn't seem to be much grey, deep down. Lotsa grey on the surface. But when you throw people in to the fire...It's black or white.

Wilful Ignorance

Here's a caveat(ALWAYS wanted to use that word in conversation.) This may turn out slightly rantish, but I'm going to do my very best to avoid that. Touchy subject for me.

Now, moving on to the topic of the day. Wilful Ignorance. If you don't know what this is, it's basically staying ignorant, even though you could move beyond this, for different reasons. Wilful Ignorance, it seems, is especially common in politics and religion. Though, it can happen in anything. Here's an example, the Mac commercials. They just came out with a new one, about how bad Vista is. Well, that's been most of their campaign, but this was more specific. And people will take it at face value without every getting opinions from people who are on Vista, have used it, and have had time to develop real opinions.

I understand being ignorant about some things, well, most things. I'm pretty smart, and I don't know alot more then I know. A whole lot more. But I WANT to learn things that I don't know. If you show me proof, I'll accept it. Well, if it's interesting, I'll continue looking it up, and thinking about it, but I won't deny it.

There's a quote in this book I'm reading, I believe from Mao, that goes something likes this. "We shall disagree with our enemies always, whether they are right or wrong." It's worded much differently, but that was the gist of it. And people do that. Again, especially with religion and politics. If I'm conservative, and you're liberal, or vice versa...Whatever you say, well, sorry. It's wrong.

Why do people do this? Why do we need to be wilfully ignorant, often on the most important subjects? Because it's uncomfortable? So you contiribute to the awkwardness, and the need to actually have intelligent conversation about the subject. Nobody's perfect. Nobody will be perfect. But, you don't need to stop trying to better yourself because of this.

My Masculinity Is Bigger Than Yours.

I was on YouTube last night, and by following the Related Videos boredly, seeing where I'd get, I got to a video about guns. (Try it some time. Start with a subject and just click Related Videos, and see where you end up. Or try it on Wikipedia. Interesting things can happen.) Some guy was talking about how he was an avid gun owner, but was going to vote for Obama. For whatever reason, it's not allowing me to see the comment made by a person anymore, but from my memory, he called Obama a socialist Nazi, and that if you wanted good information on the candidates, go to NRA's website. Oh also, he threw the term "Osama Obama around." I decided to respond with this.

"Please, let's not be so ignorant to throw the term Nazi out just because you disagree with someone's policies. I don't like McCain, or Hillary, or a thousand other people, and I certainly disagree with Obama on some things. But to associate them with a group that caused the deaths of millions is just irresponsible as a human being."

Guess what the response was that I got from a 33 year old man? "Cry me a river." Well now, that gets me on to my topic.

Guns. I believe in the 2nd amendment, but to a certain point. I loved the part in Bowling For Columbine where Michael Moore is talking to a guy about the 2nd amendment, and the right to bear arms. Not necessarily guns, but arms. Which includes nuclear weapons, so Michael Moore asks him if he thinks people should be able to own nuclear weapons. The guy replies something like "Well no, there's wackos out there."

So going down from that to stuff like Assault Weapons. I can understand owning shotguns and handguns. But personally, I think having an assault rifle in your house is a little excessive. You're not going to go hunt a deer with that. The only reason is for 'personal protection.' I suppose. I can see how people would feel safe with an assault rifle at their disposal, but if you feel the need to have such a weapon to feel safe...Well, there's obviously bigger problems going on in the society, because you appear to be living in a warzone then. And it's extremely unlikely that you're going to be broken in to anyway, and if you are, it's likely you're asleep. So your assault rifle isn't helping you much anyway.

I guess I think it goes back to the culture of fear that we've been talking about in class. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm willing to bet that most of the world would feel LESS safe with an assault rifle in their house. So why is having such a dangerous weapon near us comforting, for some people? Does it make them feel more like a man, because they can protect their family from a freak rabid bear attack? I don't know, but I keep coming back to the quote from Albert Einstein. "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

Living Out Our Fantasies.

We talked about movies and their effect on our view of genders in class on Monday, and I wanted to continue that conversation. Sal was talking about all the gender implications in movies, and people like Xena and Lara Croft. Then he said that Juno just had normal people, and that's one of the reasons he liked it so much.

My theory about movies is that we're living out our fantasies, or even just another life through them. For 2 hours, we want to feel like Bruce Willis in Die Hard, or Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator. Or we want to feel like Xena, or Lara Croft. We want to feel extraordinary. We want to ooze sex appeal and danger. We want to be that witty, smart, confident and beautiful person on screen. We live our fantasies through them. Even in Juno, I'm willing to bet a lot of people saw it and thought "I wonder what I would do." You're escaping from your life by being in theirs. You wouldn't go see something that's normal for you. You wouldn't go watch a movie about a 17 year old who goes to school for 2/3rds of a year, and only occasionally encounters moments of hilariousness. You go watch a movie about a guy who compulsively draws penises, and a guy who changes his name to McLovin. Because it's not your life.

Who wants to watch their life magnified on a 20 foot by 20 foot screen, as they do nothing out of the usual? Nobody wants to see themselves, or anyone who looks like them, crack a joke that they got from the internet the previous night. You want to go see a movie with someone who is prettier than you, wittier than you, and better than you. Between me and you, we both know that they're human too. But not in the movies. In the movies they're like Greco-Roman Gods. So, for those 2 hours, you're that character on the screen, living out your fantasy. This works for books too. I know that in the 1000+ books I've read, that I've done it to escape from my life.

It's not the responsibility of the companies to make it more 'realistic' because 90% of the time we don't want realistic. And even if they do make it realistic, like Dove, you think they aren't thinking of the market appeal of being one of the first to have the "Regular Beautiful." ad campaign? Maybe they have good intentions, but if they didn't expect returns from this investment, with people who feel like Sal who buy their products because of this nice, homey campaign that they can relate to, do you think they'd be using it? (No offense Sal, =P)

It's the responsibility of the people to decide what they want. For myself, I'm going to continue reading the Sci-Fi books where I can for a moment, live in the future. I'm going to keep watching those hilariously unrealistic movies and even less realistic action flicks. Because even though I feel comfortable with myself, very comfortable even, I still have fantasies. And I don't think this is bad. It's all about knowing that after those 2 hours that my life isn't worth any less then theirs. Especially since theirs isn't real.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

I was talking to my caseworker today, along with an intern and another caseworker about PTSD, or as it is known, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It was brought up by the subject of Veterans, as the intern was thinking about interning at a VA, which is basically provides care to veterans. She had started thinking about it because of someone she knew having a husband return from the war, and as is common with war-time soldiers, he had PTSD. If you do not know, PTSD can cause severe flashbacks, or changes in your personality for brief periods of time. As a result, this returning soldier beat his wife, who he had loved for some time now and had previously shown no signs of aggression, in to the hospital.

Honestly, I think PTSD is a very important issue, though I am biased slightly, as I had a diagnosis of PTSD at one point in my life, albiet not anywhere near as severe as most cases with soldiers. Even still, I would flinch when people got close to me. And it is much much worse for soldiers. And as our soldiers return, I feel like they're not getting any real support. Though, this is not a new phenemon, especially as it happened with Vietnam in particular too.

But imagine as 150,000+ soldiers return, I think quite a large percentage will have, or be diagnosed with PTSD. I think an even larger percentage will go undiagnosed. I feel like we're making a huge mistake, because all the news I hear about this subject is how the soldier's aren't getting the psychological support that is needed. What I feel the worst about though, is that we're creating a phenomen that is War, but the people we involve in it, we don't help them out as much as we SHOULD be, if they even survive.

Looking at it sociologically, I feel like we, as a nation, are abandoning people who need us, because it's so awkward to think about, to talk about, this idea of PTSD. Because often, I think we just want to forget about the war we were involved in. Especially the consequences of it. Even when we leave our fellow human beings in trouble.