Our perception of people in the world has changed dramatically since the global usage of email, text and social networking became available. Now the people we know and care about cannot make a move without us being entirely aware, but also the people we only know by name, face or reputation cannot move without being watched.
Has all of this been sparked by the never-ending media surrounding celebrities, who got drunk or were seen arguing with their latest beau? Is the downfall of celebrity status the fault of the public? It seems that even the un-known entrants into the Big Brother house are ‘booed’ before we have any idea as to their personality; it seems as if we just want to degrade everyone, and have a great time gossiping about it. Are we just trying to escape the wretchedness of our own lives by making other peoples lives look worse? How charitable of us.
If we look back at recent “heroes” of our time, people who were admired by the majority of the public, Jade Goody, Princess Diana for example. Jade Goody had her ups and her downs within the media, and made the most of it, but what we looked for, what the papers looked for; was a story that was discriminating or revealing. We want to see our favourite celebrity experiencing the pains of ‘real life’, being broken hearted, falling over, living as we do. Now I am not claiming that all celebrities are heroes, some of them are the opposite. But there are heroes amongst them.
Obama is seen as ‘the Saviour of America’, but how long until the paparazzi catch a photograph of him not drinking Fair-trade coffee? Do we really want to destroy the pedestal that we put him on, or is it time we started keeping our heroes in tact.
A perfect example of a ‘hero’ who has not failed to please is The Stig. We have action figures, posters even soap on a rope bearing his name, and the secret to his success is that no one really knows who he is. He keeps us entertained, the kids all want to be like him and the adults are all jealous of how ‘totally awesome’ his driving skills are? We don’t desire to see The Stig doing drugs because they cannot cope, or destroying his relationship by having an affair, but only because we don’t know who he is, he has a secret identity which works. We cannot compare ourselves to him, because we only know one thing about him – he can drive.
If our world were to truly have superheroes such as Spiderman, Superman etc, we would have admiration, maybe a sense of pride for the goodness that they provide for us. They do not look like real people, so we cannot possibly compare ourselves, think that we are lesser beings, because we are. We treat them as Gods. Unfortunately, in our real world, the heroes we do have, regardless of how good they are, how beautiful they may be, will always bear resemblance to us, so we will always want to think that we can be the same. So when we see them broken hearted we can sympathise, but also relate to them. We want to believe we are all heroes, we do not want to believe that another person could possibly hold more kindness in their hearts, than we do. But the simple fact is, that there will always be someone who has achieved or will achieve more than you. We meet heroes every single day of our lives, who look after the terminally ill, give up all their time for others, that strive to make others happy before themselves. We would never seek their downfall, or harass them with paparazzi, just honour them, admire them, make them our muse.
The masked heroes who save our world every day from everyday crimes and misdemeanours in comic books and films only ever truly succeed because no one knows who they really are. If we all know that if Clarke Kent had revealed himself as Superman he would have been harassed and followed, until he had no choice but to leave the Earth.
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, carrying out various deeds, whether to entertain, be inspirational, do good in the world, but it is the public and the media who drive them away, destroying all memory of any good they may have done until they pass away. Only then do we seem to remember the sacrifices they made to save us.
Yes, we can all be heroes, we can all do our bit to help others and our planet, but let us not forget that people will also do better and greater things than we will. Let us praise them, not destroy them.
If Batman was here to save us all from ourselves, would we push him away? Would he let us? A true hero never gives up, and would carry out the deeds they do for the happiness of other people, would try to avoid the limelight or continue their work even if they were hated, and maybe have their secret identity and work from the shadows. However, they should not have to.
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