29/09/2009

The Dawn of Superheroes?

A unspecified number of months ago I encounter Real Life Superheroes for the first time. At the moment it's still a pretty new and media friendly phenomena, but personally it both scares and inspires me to some degree. More on that soon though.
Like I said, it's new, and since it's popping up locally in various cities in the US (for the most part at least) it's getting at least some local attention.
In the case of Master Legend, it's international even, with an article in Rolling Stone magazine.
And even if it's not the glamorous playboy lifestyle of Bruce Wayne, it seems like he's doing some good at least.
Master Legend appears to be more of a "traditional superhero" you might say. Fighting bad guys, working with the police, things like that.
Then there's others who do more of a community service, neighborhood watch sorta deal. They put on a costume and go around helping people basically.
Like The Black Monday Society:







This sorta thing is what inspires me. Fighting crime is all very well, but in my mind crime is a symptom, not the disease. People turn to crime mainly because of social factors. They can't get a job because of a lack of education, because they end up with people who only want get rich as quick as possible, gangs, drugs, and so on. Making sure the streets are safe, helping the homeless, and just being a nice person might not seem like fighting crime, but the purpose isn't to stop crime. It's to prevent it.
This is done by becoming a symbol of what is good. You do good, because it might inspire someone else to be a little nicer to others. If you're lucky they might even help someone who really needs it at the right time. By proxy you might be changing lives.
It affects both the people you're helping, and the people who see you helping. They might dismiss you with "Anyone could do that!" But then if it's so easy, why aren't you doing it?

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