A Need for Heroes

I think, in this day and age, we are in need of heroes. While this has been true of every age, it has because especially relevant to ours because of one simple fact.

We have no heroes.

Athletes, the main stay of cultural icons at the turn of the 1900’s and the following decades used to provide us with ‘heroes.' Yet this is no longer the case, thanks in large part to the near continuous series of steroid, sex, or crime scandals that taint that profession.

Astronauts no longer are our heroes, and with President Obama finding better things to spend money on, he has all but killed the American space program and killed NASA.

In centuries past it was our soldiers and generals who gave us heroes: Washington, Patton, Jackson, Lee, Grant, and so on. Yet with the current anti-war sentiment that has existed from at least the 1960’s, we can’t draw our heroes from there. Indeed, the average American citizen can’t name the current general of the Iraq/Afghan wars.

Actors and Rock stars fall under the same blanket as Athletes. Sex, Drugs, Crime, so on and so fifth (increased due to inflation) strip them of any heroic status as fast as ink dries on tabloids or someone can log into a web page.

A while back I heard people discussing this issue, I believe on Huckabee and they mentioned the idea that the last presidential election had all been about trying to obtain a hero for the American people: Obama as an African-American Messiah-like figure, McCain the War Hero, Palin the First Republican Vice President, Hilary Clinton as the First Female President.

Yet even that has rung hollow. Obama-the-Messiah (and don’t kid yourself, left and right saw those images and embraced the idea to various degrees) has proven all but incapable of obtaining his goals. Palin has been vilified. McCain is off the radar. Clinton got relegated to a position with no air time.

So where do we turn? Anymore, people turn to comic books and movies. Hence the resurgence in those industries, where a $10 ticket sells like donuts at a cop convention. The revival of movies like Clash of the Titans, grand epics with incredible monsters and larger than life heroes is not just because we finally have the technology to make such things look real.

It is because we are looking for something more.

When society constantly tells us that we are all equal and all the same, that no one is better than anyone else. When no one can stand above everyone else, because they’ll be torn down by the mob as fast as they are raised above it, there is no place for anyone to prove themselves as great.

In education, the common practice of “Leave no child behind” has translated into dragging down those in the front rather than pulling forwards those that lag. The current epidemic of ADD and ADHD that has left waves of medicated zombies in its wake and has destroyed active, excitable kids with the desire to live and explore as much as they can. School days get longer and longer, and people wonder why their kids get fat.

It is because kids can no longer strive to become their idols. They are taught to mock those who stand above, or taught the very things that disgrace their heroes are what they should be doing. Fifty years ago kids wanted to be astronauts, businessmen, politicians, soldiers, or superheroes.

Now though…

I’ve lost track of how many kids I see today dressed up like ganstas. Not the Mafia of the 1920’s, full of power and dressed in press suits, but thugs dressed in rags, acting tough, as if they know what violence is and that makes them superior, as if lots of heavy gold chains and a bunch of girls that are used and abused at will are what makes a man great.

Perhaps my generation is the last to remember what it was like. Heroes fell in our day, but for our early years we had a few, and we could remember the ones our parents had. I know my heroes, the ones who taught me what it was to be a man in place of an absent father and a troubled home life; Corran Horn, Leonidas, Harry Dresden, Wolverine, Magneto, Darth Bane, and many others.

I know what violence is. I looked deep in myself and discover the true nature and power of violence. It isn’t waving around a gun, smacking bitches, dealing drugs, or capping someone for dissing you, especially when you have no idea what disrespect is, much less honor or glory or nobility. Violence is brutal, horrible, elegant, and beautiful all at the same time. Violence is a sword in one’s hand, living on the edge, knowing the next moment is your last and only the Gods and your skill choose if you breathe the next moment or not. It is a painting made with blood and tears and pain and power. It provides meaning to life in a way nothing else can.

I know what power is. It is Nobility, Honor, Glory. It is the ability to choose your fate, to choose the fate of others. Power is what makes the world function.

But there is no one to teach this anymore. No great men and women to stand up and say this is how you should live. This is what it means to be a True Man or a True Woman.

There are many psychological reasons for why this is. I complain about Christianity and its mindset, but I recognize that the teachings of the Christ god are not fully responsible for this downfall, however much it may permeate all aspects of our culture.

It isn’t about what is here, today, that is responsible for why we don’t have heroes. It is about what isn’t. With the current resurgence of Paganism in the West, Western civilization has simultaneously finished rejecting the last tenants of pagan culture that had been buried deep in Western culture. The process of Multiculturalism that has attacked Western Culture so strongly and vilified it, has succeeded in leaving only Eastern Culture in its wake. The religion of the Christ god may be dying, but the basic beliefs are still around, only in casting off the religion, we’ve cast off the bones of the pagan traditions that filled Europe, regarding them as evil or useless.

It is my hope that in Paganism we will see heroes arise for heathen people, but I don’t think society at large will have that many more after this. There is a trend in society that others have been talking about, where the elite have been training people to feel that they don’t deserve their rights, that they deserve to be victims because their ancestors did things that are now viewed as wrong. White children don’t respect white culture. In fact, there is a sense that there is no white culture anymore and when something resembling "White Culture" appears it is normally called racist. I once remarked in a civil rights class that it seemed to me the current pinnacle of manliness was the Black Gansta, and though I was roundly shouted down I feel that I was right. As stated before, lots of “Cool” kids now dress Gansta. Even on colleges, I see more guys rocking the Gansta look than anything else.

I want this to change, but not because I'm racist or feel White people are superior, cause we're just like every one else.

I want us to have heroes again. Not just the ones in movies and books, but physical men and women who stand above the masses and proclaim that they are alive, they are great and powerful and noble. I want to see kids of each ethnic heritage be proud of who they are, especially white ones. Writing this, I know that many would call me a racist if they read my words. I want to know when that happened. I want to know when it became wrong to be proud of my white skin and European heritage, even when I do not hate any other races. I don’t declare white supremacy. I think such things are a joke. There is no superior race, but there can be superior individuals, and I want to see them again.

I want to see violence and power reach the level they did centuries ago. When people understood that they weren’t evil, but good. When people knew when to be violent, and when to be peaceful. In news feeds and television I see leaders bow down and submit when they should stand and fight, giving into people who know what violence is for and have no care for my people and our ways, but rather view them as evil and to be destroyed. I am not speaking of just Islam and Socialism, but so many others that I cannot count them.

I want to see Holger le Danske, Charles Martele, Harald Hardrada, Cnut the Great, King Arthur, and so many others come back in spirit and name, to lead us into an age of Nobility and Power.

I want to see a hero once more

Of Tolerance and Intolerance

Life is filled with many paradoxes today, though I feel that since the last election they have only grown starker. With calls for Universal Healthcare to dealing with Climate Change/Global Warming, we have become more and more polarized. The fact that the current president of the United States is black/African American only increases this, with some people being afraid to say what they wish for fear of being called racist and others eagerly calling those who disagree with the President’s ideas out as racists.
Daily, we are bombarded with the idea that we must accept people, that we must be tolerant. We are told not to hate people because they are black, or Hispanic, or GLBT, and that these people are owed the rights that have been kept from them over the years. Fine by me, the more freedoms we have the better. Over the years I have gone from a person who was freaked out by the idea of Gay people to someone who views it as just another part of the world. As for that ever so lovable topic of Gay marriage, marriage was a social contract long ago, an oath before Gods and Men (this including their female counterparts in both the divine and mortal). If Gay people wish to be married, let them.
Yet, there is a rather shocking element to modern Tolerance: Intolerance. Try protesting Gay marriage or homosexuality and you’ll be called a Homophobe, if not worse, and often face allegations that you are secretly gay and that’s why you’re so hateful to The Cause. Personally, I find the idea rather laughable, mostly because I believe a person is fully capable of hating something without secretly wanting to be it, but more on that another time. I admit to being a little weirded out by Gay men, but I freely admit that is mostly because I’m a rather blunt person and if one hit on me I can’t promise I’d be politically correct. I’ve been informed that this is not something I have to worry about as Gay men don’t hit on obviously straight men. Beyond that I have the attitude of live and let live. Lesbians are cool in my book. Bisexuals I can actually understand. I personally, am straight.
Back to the topic marriage, namely who can and can’t be married. For example, raise the idea of polygamy and see what happens. I once wrote a paper on the subject and in my research discovered that it wasn’t people like the Mormons who are on the frontier of the Polygamous movement, but rather Bisexuals. It makes sense, when you like both sexes, why not have one of each for a life partner/spouse. I actually hold that entered into with the proper mindset and understanding, polygamy is possibly a more stable form of marriage than monogamy. My research, though old now, indicated that this had presented the Gay community with a paradox: Support the widening of marriage to include polygamy, one of the most hated forms of marriage, or stand with the traditionalists and insist that marriage should be between only two individuals. I don’t know if this has been resolved in the years since then, but I haven’t seen anything to indicate that it has.
Probably the most relevant and dangerous subject of this concept though, is Race. Nowhere else are people so polarized, so demanding, so judgmental, as in the area of Racism. Let’s be honest, there is a great deal of power to be had in Racism. Now, I do not hold with Racism, it is a stupid way to judge people and divide them. I prefer measuring a man or woman based on their character, accomplishments, and their strength. This is a rather Pagan way of doing things, but then I am rather Pagan. I am an Ethnicitist, thought that means believing people should take pride in their Ethnic backgrounds, regardless of skin color.
Yet here is where the intolerance lies strongest. If a Black person speaks of White Oppression, that White’ control all the banks, all the corporations, and so on, while calling for a change in power from Whites to another racial group that is being oppressed, no one declares them a racist. This has actually happened in front of me, in a civil rights class. It happened in other classes I’ve have which dealt with racism. We are to be tolerant of all men, but I’ll admit I’ve faced intolerance because of my race. While it is true that there is a majority of Whites in positions of power, one must realize that it is simply an effect of Whites having had access for longer. Give it another hundred years at most, without messing with the system, and you’ll probably see an fairly even ratio of all races. Heck, we have a black president, so Whites can’t have all that much power, or at least be using it to keep the minorities down. Studies have been conducted to show that Whites will soon be a minority in this country. Make of that what you will.
It strikes me as so strange that in an age of tolerance, people can be so intolerant. What makes it stranger for me is that I am a rather intolerant person. I despise weakness, I have no tolerance for people who whine about the oppression of decades or centuries passed. I find things like Hate Crimes and their laws abhorrent. I’m not really a fan of affirmative action. Yet, I ask, before you angrily click away, you permit me to explain.
Every race, ethnicity, creed, or ideology and its followers, has been oppressed. My own people, the Norse, had our culture, our gods, and our holy places destroyed by a group of religious fanatics who wanted to “Save our Souls.” It is only in the recent past that people have been able to reclaim our lost ways. Yet every day, we face people saying ours is a false religious, not worthy of the rights of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Judaism. Sometimes, we are called racist, because a few misguided souls.
I hate racism, because of what it does to people of all colors. The reason I don’t like things like Hate Crime Laws and Affirmative Action, is because it carries on the idea of racism and promotes it. Affirmative Action was meant to give minorities, namely Blacks, a chance to get into places that they had previously been barred from, like universities and businesses. It was noble idea and one that was needed in some ways. Yet over the years it has been used to give people jobs not based on merit, but on skin color. Hate Crimes create special classes of protected citizens, in effect creating racial and sexual elites. Few people complain about this because the “Elite” of today is the inverse of the “Elite” of yester year. I side with those who declare all crimes acts of hate and don’t see why we need to specially declare something a hateful crime.
While the words of the law may not discriminate, their use does. I have yet to hear of a group of black people tried for committing a hate crime against a white person, though I have read of cases where it is clearly deserved. Nor have I heard of a case where GLBT individuals were charged with a hate crime against a Heterosexual person. Our society functions on the idea that all people are equal. This means that everyone is equally capable of hatred as they are of love, malice as well as kindness, regardless of skin or gender. To say otherwise is to indicate that there are people who are racially or sexually superior to others.
The irony or our day is this. We are an Tolerant Nation that practices Intolerance. The irony of myself is that I and a rather Intolerant person, who lives a life of Tolerance. I judge, when the world says I shouldn’t and I don’t judge, when the world says I should. Maybe this makes me a bad person, maybe not. That answer is not for me to decide. However, before you decide for me, know that in judging you may be violating the very principle of tolerance you are taught to live by.