Heroes

I get teary-eyed when I watch movies these days. I didn't used to be like this but I've changed quite a bit from who I was not 5 years ago. There are two sentiments that always make me tear up: love and surmounting the previously-impossible. The final scenes in love stories where the two make up and kiss? I tear up. The launch scene in Apollo 13 when the Saturn V takes off from the pad? I tear up. Why? Not sure but someone accused me of being a hopeless romantic lately. Perhaps that's why.

I was pondering the increasing complexity of our world the other day and although we humans are still dealing with the same problems our forefathers have always dealt with, matters such as having shelter, food to eat and other such concerns in the physiological layer of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, everything else above that has risen in complexity. It used to be that employment meant you clean rooms as a maid or you serve tables at the local inn; jobs that have clear outcomes. These days, it's not as clear-cut. In my job, what I do doesn't yield results until anywhere from 18 to 60 months in the future. I have no immediate gratification and patience does start to wear thin. The closest analogy I have is being a sponsor of exploration expeditions during the age of sail. You finance ships and crew then you wait for years before you find out what they've discovered, if they return at all.

What has all this got to do with the topic of this post? Simple: we have no real heroes anymore. We have no heroes because our world has grown far too complex for any single person to be a hero. There was a time when you could earn a name for yourself as being an amazing software developer back in the days when you could code a game or application all on your own. These days, you'll be fortunate if you can code something marketable even with a full team of developers. The days when individuals can make a difference are gone. It doesn't mean that we can't do anything nor does it mean we should stop trying. It does mean that it's much harder to make a difference.

We have no heroes also because we have become equally as sophisticated. There was a time when war heroes can command ticker-tape parades for killing the enemy or some act of valour. The fact that they may be alcoholics or that they beat their wife or that they're as racist as they come wouldn't matter because in the end, we adore them for the one thing they do best. That's not the case anymore. Our war heroes of the past have been replaced by sports heroes but even then, most of their adoration becomes tarnished over time by alleged drug use or some such affront to societal norms.

We have no heroes because we've outgrown them. We've become a society where our confidence in ourselves no longer bear any resemblance to what we can really do. If you don't believe me, go talk with any teenager. We've gotten soft, become used to the comforts of civilization without ever having to earn it. Do you know how your car works? Do you know why your food heats up when you put it into the microwave? Do you know who your local government representative is? Do you know what your child is being taught in school? Do you know where your food comes from? Do you even know how to cook these days, where cooking does not mean dumping a box of KD into boiling water or sticking in a TV dinner into the microwave?

Why does it matter? Maybe it's just the march of civilization. Perhaps this is the natural progression of a technological civilization.

Perhaps.

Or perhaps we've gone down the wrong evolutionary path in our societal growth.

I need heroes. Even if that hero is my husband. Even if that hero is my co-worker. I need to believe that not all of us have succumbed to the mediocrity that is pervasive in our modern society. Why are heroes important? Simple: they give us hope.