Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship in 'Action Comics' #900
Wow! I, admittedly, have never even read any comics that haven’t appeared in my daily newspaper, but I still knew enough about Superman and this one kinda blind sided me.
A lot of different thoughts started spinning around in my head when I read the explanation in the linked article above from Comics Alliance.com. Basically, as Superman realizes that by being known, worldwide, as an advocate for “truth, justice and the American way” has also saddled himself with the responsibility that comes with such popularity. Interestingly, for the longest time, the United States has been advocating for truth, justice and the American way and has used it’s label as a world superhero (ahem, power) as well. I see symbolism here! Is the United States at the same crossroads? It seems that when the United States does interact with other nations around the world, even the utmost diplomacy often puts us in a situation where someone misconstrues something we say or do and gets pissed and then, we end up in, yet another, conflict. Maybe we just can’t please everybody? If we do too much to help someone else, we are meddling, if we don’t do enough, we are negligent. And all along the way, of trying to provide the porridge that is “just right” we, our own citizens, are the ones that are going hungry.
When I first read the headline, I thought that Superman was giving up on the United States. For the longest time, I looked at the history books, saw a glorious time of economic prosperity when the United States went through its Isolationist Period. There are a number of Americans who think that this might be the best direction to take. The last time we did, we did well for ourselves and fixed up our own “home” pretty nicely. Lord only knows we have plenty of housekeeping of our own, the economic turmoil, political infighting, environmental catastrophes, crime, ad infinitum. It would make perfect sense that the United States takes a step back from fixing everyone else’s problems and work on our own. It’s really no surprise that people outside the United States are often so resistant to the concept of us trying to help them be more like us. It’s almost laughable, except that, as far as many are concerned, we are so busy busying ourselves with the affairs of others so that we can avoid cleaning our own messes. Fair enough. I don’t think that Superman IS giving up on the United States though. It’s not that our mess isn’t worth cleaning, I think it might be that Superman noticed that we could make our whole global “neighborhood” nicer by working alongside other nations to make the whole neighborhood pretty, instead of hunkering ourselves down in our own little messy home.
There’s the argument for Globalism.It’s kind of funny, because, using the first definition, putting the world’s needs above the needs of a specific nation, takes the whole concept of the “United States melting pot” global. Thinking of the people as a whole, while retaining certain individual liberties. There’s the argument that we are all part of a global community that lives in a global home, which is the Earth. The internet has provided to us limitless opportunity to make personal connections with anyone and everyone across the globe. People, in previous generations, never knew the horrors of war, for instance, until the morning paper and the evening news was able to bring actual pictures and footage to us while we ate our family meals. It was then that we began to understand the implications of our actions and the actions of others far beyond any explanation that the government had provided to us previously. Information in it’s truest form is never biased, but that footage, grotesque and scary, certainly created bias . Yes, everyone should be free, but at what cost? And if we tell them they should be free, and if we push for their freedom, are they really free? Now, the internet takes it to another level, allowing the oppressed in Egypt to organize protests, on their own, freely and achieve their own agendas, without the need or want of help from the superpower that is (?) the United States. The colonists that formed the United States were certainly not world superpowers and they achieved the success that was, is and hopefully always will be the United Sates. So then, if other people in other nations don’t need us to fight their battles for them, maybe we can embrace Globalism from a new perspective that could allow the United States and the rest of the world to attain peace and prosperity.
A little hokey? Perhaps. Naïve? Possibly? I personally have about a hundred other silly clichés that I could use here, but the thing is, the reason clichés are clichés is because they are perennially applicable. We ALWAYS have the opportunity to make choices that point us in the direction of peace and prosperity. Maybe this is the time where we actually could take the road less traveled. We could take a step back, realize that while the way we have been doing things for this long isn’t the worst way to get things done, there’s always room for improvement.
So, to you Superman, I say good luck. Maybe this time, you can save the world for us. Or maybe, we can save it for ourselves!
Wow! I, admittedly, have never even read any comics that haven’t appeared in my daily newspaper, but I still knew enough about Superman and this one kinda blind sided me.
A lot of different thoughts started spinning around in my head when I read the explanation in the linked article above from Comics Alliance.com. Basically, as Superman realizes that by being known, worldwide, as an advocate for “truth, justice and the American way” has also saddled himself with the responsibility that comes with such popularity. Interestingly, for the longest time, the United States has been advocating for truth, justice and the American way and has used it’s label as a world superhero (ahem, power) as well. I see symbolism here! Is the United States at the same crossroads? It seems that when the United States does interact with other nations around the world, even the utmost diplomacy often puts us in a situation where someone misconstrues something we say or do and gets pissed and then, we end up in, yet another, conflict. Maybe we just can’t please everybody? If we do too much to help someone else, we are meddling, if we don’t do enough, we are negligent. And all along the way, of trying to provide the porridge that is “just right” we, our own citizens, are the ones that are going hungry.
When I first read the headline, I thought that Superman was giving up on the United States. For the longest time, I looked at the history books, saw a glorious time of economic prosperity when the United States went through its Isolationist Period. There are a number of Americans who think that this might be the best direction to take. The last time we did, we did well for ourselves and fixed up our own “home” pretty nicely. Lord only knows we have plenty of housekeeping of our own, the economic turmoil, political infighting, environmental catastrophes, crime, ad infinitum. It would make perfect sense that the United States takes a step back from fixing everyone else’s problems and work on our own. It’s really no surprise that people outside the United States are often so resistant to the concept of us trying to help them be more like us. It’s almost laughable, except that, as far as many are concerned, we are so busy busying ourselves with the affairs of others so that we can avoid cleaning our own messes. Fair enough. I don’t think that Superman IS giving up on the United States though. It’s not that our mess isn’t worth cleaning, I think it might be that Superman noticed that we could make our whole global “neighborhood” nicer by working alongside other nations to make the whole neighborhood pretty, instead of hunkering ourselves down in our own little messy home.
There’s the argument for Globalism.It’s kind of funny, because, using the first definition, putting the world’s needs above the needs of a specific nation, takes the whole concept of the “United States melting pot” global. Thinking of the people as a whole, while retaining certain individual liberties. There’s the argument that we are all part of a global community that lives in a global home, which is the Earth. The internet has provided to us limitless opportunity to make personal connections with anyone and everyone across the globe. People, in previous generations, never knew the horrors of war, for instance, until the morning paper and the evening news was able to bring actual pictures and footage to us while we ate our family meals. It was then that we began to understand the implications of our actions and the actions of others far beyond any explanation that the government had provided to us previously. Information in it’s truest form is never biased, but that footage, grotesque and scary, certainly created bias . Yes, everyone should be free, but at what cost? And if we tell them they should be free, and if we push for their freedom, are they really free? Now, the internet takes it to another level, allowing the oppressed in Egypt to organize protests, on their own, freely and achieve their own agendas, without the need or want of help from the superpower that is (?) the United States. The colonists that formed the United States were certainly not world superpowers and they achieved the success that was, is and hopefully always will be the United Sates. So then, if other people in other nations don’t need us to fight their battles for them, maybe we can embrace Globalism from a new perspective that could allow the United States and the rest of the world to attain peace and prosperity.
A little hokey? Perhaps. Naïve? Possibly? I personally have about a hundred other silly clichés that I could use here, but the thing is, the reason clichés are clichés is because they are perennially applicable. We ALWAYS have the opportunity to make choices that point us in the direction of peace and prosperity. Maybe this is the time where we actually could take the road less traveled. We could take a step back, realize that while the way we have been doing things for this long isn’t the worst way to get things done, there’s always room for improvement.
So, to you Superman, I say good luck. Maybe this time, you can save the world for us. Or maybe, we can save it for ourselves!
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