There's an interesting article on Salon.com about your culture's draw toward heroes, specifically in the realm of popular culture, and how that draw translates into politics. It examines two movies: Master and Commander and The Lord of the Rings and how some character traits translate into the political sphere.
Which may be precisely why images of heroism in the movies refuse to die, and also why our own leaders curry favor with us by grabbing at the trappings of heroism, donning flight suits as if they were superhero Halloween costumes, and questioning one another's military heroics. Four-star Gen. Wesley Clark tried to pull rank over the highly decorated Sen. John Kerry ("... he's a lieutenant and I'm a general") while Democrats have been quick to try and contrast Kerry's honored record with the president's questionable one.
While the impulse does lend itself to a fascist sort of structure (whether your conservative or liberal, reactionary or revolutionary), does nobility have an inherent flaw whereby the common culture wants them to fail miserably? Where does this impulse manifest?
Insofar as the "hero" image and politics goes, that can be traced at least as far back as the epic poems of pre-literate cultures--The Odyssey or Beowulf, for instance. In both cases, you have a hero that's presented to be larger than life, and they're both powerful leaders --Odysseus and Beowulf are both kings who have overcome otherwise impossible foes.
I don't thnk the human impulse to make one's self seem more important (Gen. Clark bringing the rank matter up as mentioned in the article) or the desire to see successful people fail aren't as much flaws in nobility as they are warped holdovers of basic instincts meant to encourage us to compete for the best chances of survival and breeding--Theoretically, if you seem more impressive to the opposite sex, you're more likely to get a better breeding partner. By the same token, if someone powerful fails, then what they had is up for grabs.
Of course, actual human behavior is a lot more complicated now than it was when the species hid in caves and Og and Thak beat each other up to impress the cave-ladies. End result: Humans are full of a lot of behaviors that don't make much, if any, sense.
Christopher
Portland, OR
November 2002
FEB 28, 2004 03:37 PM