When a "god," Reality, and a Superhero Collide - Part Two

Four Minute Read

Part One is here in case you missed it - The "god" of limitless consumerism.

---

I was just about to sit down to write. My pre-dawn cup of coffee was patiently working its way through the grounds when I heard it - that obnoxious chirp of a smoke detector only fifteen feet away. My options included everything from just finding a new battery, to disabling or removing that bugger. But I care about everyone in this home and my hundred-year-old house - so I only had one reasonable option.

We as a nation, have been doing the equivalent of yanking out smoke detectors, and then ignoring the smoke. It’s been our modus operandi, but it’s a folly of fools.

Photo by Chris Karidis - Unsplash

It’s gotten harder to ignore all the tell-tale signs - the collapse of integrity and reverence for truth, rampant drug abuse, gun violence, chaos on the southern border, climate change, and a long list of other growing problems. For the most part we’ve turned a blind eye to that which is destroying our social fabric and the integrity of our Republic. We’ve ignored all too many flashing lights and I haven’t even touched on deadly conflicts, wars, and nuclear proliferation all around the globe.

There seems to be a growing sense that rapidly escalating, existential threats to our wellbeing will somehow go away if we deflect and distract long enough.

---

As a nation we fail to recognize that “each man for himself,” and “survival of the fittest” has little meaning in 2024 when one cowardly, weak person can ruin everyone’s day. From one kid with an assault rifle in a grammar school, to terrorists in the Middle East, to a grown-up narcissist launching a nuclear missile across the oceans, the main thing that has changed in this millennium is the scale of the weapons available.

We seem unwilling to recognize that we are all interconnected. The water we drink and the air that we breathe are both affected every bit as much by our “enemies” as our friends. Regardless of where or how the Covid pandemic started, people of every nation suffered and the means to neutralize it came from all around the globe.

We are all in this together!

---

Seriously addressing any of the “tell-tale signs” I mentioned above would demand digging deeply into their respective root causes. It would require very mature and thoughtful adults in the room. Do we as a nation know, or even care what that would look like? Spoiler alert, try to imagine the complete opposite of angertainment.

---

Confronting reality would require us to ask different types of questions.

Why do we have such an extremely high demand for mind-altering drugs in our country, the richest on the planet?

How would a dramatic reduction in that demand effect the violence, corruption and poverty that collectively drives so much of the migration throughout Latin America?

Can a democracy survive when lying, threatening, dissenting voices, and blatant corruption are not only tolerated but actively embraced out of fear or as a means of pursuing agendas?

Why do we lose eight times more victims to suicide in the U.S. than do Syria, Venezuela, or Honduras? (World Population Review) - based on yearly deaths per hundred thousand people.

Do we really think that an annual burn of 4.5 billion barrels of oil, 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 2 million cubic feet of coal will somehow cool our warming planet?

Why do the same people, who seemingly worship the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, deny the validity of the Fourteenth Amendment - even after witnessing live footage of the January 6th Insurrection?

We can ignore reality, but sooner or later it will find us.

---

Between so many Americans being driven by the god of consumption and those immersed in alternate realities, is it any wonder that Americans are clinging to the hope that a Superhero will save us?

Let’s be honest; Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Thor, Spiderman, and Katniss all did their amazing stuff, but in the final analysis, they just left the world forsaken. They would have amounted to nothing if it weren’t for the magnification of the silver screen.

Rumor has it that we actually have access to a real Superhero in 2024. I understand he comes with action figures, very valuable manly cards, silver coins, and all the flags and hats that anyone could shake a stick at. But - Is He the Real Deal? In 2024 it really matters!

Actual, bonified superheroes, in my experience, have had an uncanny ability to always tell the truth regardless of how difficult that might be.

They never puff themselves up.

They would never for instance say - “I’m going to build the best wall ever and have the enemy pay for it” - without doing exactly that.

The real deal would never say he’s going to create the best economy ever and then leave that economy with an eight-trillion-dollar debt.

He would never, for instance, say he was going to drain some ginormous swamp, and then turn around and fill it up even further with personally endorsed excrement.

We need to think long and hard before we put this flailing democracy under the control of any superhero without being absolutely certain that they are the real deal!

Sharing this post and your thoughts are tangible ways to support my work and I thank you very much - Mark.