The Hero, the Villain and a Tango with Change.
Over time, and hopefully if you read a bit more of my ramblings, you will work out that I’m pretty average in most things, in fact maybe far too average to even be writing about anything. It will however be very clear that I’m at least a very honest average person. I don’t pretend to know things I don’t, and I don’t try to behave as if I’m the smartest or the best because I know that is very, very far from the truth.
This is then, a great platform for us to begin our journey together, because you have no expectations, and I have no pressure to deliver anything but my thoughts.
Pure and simple.
Here goes…
The heroes that I have collected over the years are numerous, and of great valuable to me, like priceless artifacts, yet they span all walks of life and forms of music, they write poetry, they breathe philosophy, and some are even 2-dimensional comic book heroes like Spiderman or Thor.
Collectively, they have provided me with much to think about, and I often mash the lessons and impressions I’ve gleaned together like a kid with blocks of lego looking to create something, not knowing what exactly.
My latest thoughts began with heroes, how they came to be heroes, how some of them change and some of them manage to retain their essence and still remain the same. The ideas have seemed to shift on to the concept of “Change” — how it is a universal constant and how it so readily behaves exactly like its name implies, at least most of the time.
It seems that everything related to change can be seen as a key to so much opportunity, learning, self reflection, and growth. However, as you have no doubt heard, the phrase “the more things change, the more they stay the same”, I’m alarmed at the thought that change can somehow end up in things being exactly as they were.
I’d like to expand on this further.
We all know intuitively that very little changes without some discomfort, we also know that we do not really need the “pseudo-celebs,” “poop-psychology-peddlers” or the “wanna-be-famous” types on every medium we can think of to regurgitate the same things that our revered heroes and respected champions of ages past have been quietly teaching us throughout time.
The idea that if the pain of our prison is greater than our desire to remain the same, we will change and if not, we will stay the same.
When we put a little thought into this little nugget of wisdom, we might come to the realisation that for us to change anything, we need to be aware that something might actually need changing, and what follows next, are most commonly the thoughts, “what needs to change?” and possibly “how am I going to change it?”.
I absolutely love being in this part of the process, thinking ahead, imagining the future, creating little “lego cities” in my mind. For some, who might feel some discomfort or feeling lost at this process, take heart, we can be afforded the opportunity to really look at things with a clarity we did not possess before when we actually let go, and this allows us to begin forging ahead with new ideas, new designs and build the future with “us” in mind when we do.
From personal observations, change on a personal level seems far easier than any kind of change within a group. Aldous Huxley said, “I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing, is oneself.”
I have battled with this concept for quite some time and have two thoughts that seem to occupy the most of my efforts:
“Is it enough to change ourselves?” and,
“Can we truly inspire others by our example?”
Lab rats, once free from their prison, will willingly help other lab rats free themselves from the same fate. What does this say of humans, and our dopamine addictions to social media, porn, sugar, alcohol, stimulants, and the next reality tv show?
How much do we really want to change, and do we want to help our fellow humans do the same?
In my honest opinion, I don’t think so.
Miraculously, if we did, would we even know where to start?
In any event, if any of us did actually make the effort, but was unsure where or how to begin, who would we ask for help?
Chat GPT?
Woodrow Wilson said, “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”
This principle is evident in the erratic popularity of public icons like Elon Musk whose persona vacillates between villain and hero all because these character types dare to change the status quo. Often the biggest oppositions to change come from a small contingent, who seem to oppose the changes because they like things just the way they are, dependably controllable.
Heroes and Villains cannot escape the effects of change, if anything change seems to have shaped more of them than anything else. The story of a hero becoming a villain, has been echoed through time as far back as Aristotle and Plutarch, and on through the ages to Shakespear, Milton, Nietzsche and Jung and eventually Marvel and DC comics creating a plethora of unique and individual heros and villains with normal or totally eccentric backgrounds and stories.
It is a common narrative, as the story goes, a villain and a hero are two sides of the very same coin. Often similar in background and ideologies. One could be a defender of the weak, the other an oppressor of the meek or just vengeful.
And as Mr Glass likes to put it “most time they are friends, like you and me.”
It seems easy to tag two people as hero and villain, and when you drill down into the details, often the distinction comes down to their actions, and their intentions.
A hero is guided by their conscience, they will never allow the very thing that created them, or caused them pain, to be done to anyone else. Whereas a villain makes it their top priority, to ensure that they never experience that loss, or pain or humility (or whatever shameful thing it was) again, often at the cost of those around them.
It can be proposed that a hero becomes a villain when they no longer consider the greatest good for all and become selfish in their need to placate their emotions or fulfil their desires. When they seek out their gain at the cost of others and put themselves first and foremost.
How many of us have more in common with villains than with heroes?
There are very few strategies, it seems, for collective change, other than the trusted trifecta of War, Misinformation and Fear.
These are what the villains of today use to goad the rest of us into following a set path, even though there are many other options at our collective disposal.
As I sit here and sip on my coffee, pondering how much life is being wasted in places like Ukraine and the Middle east, in a pointless war, fought by men and women for leaders who know only one way of resolving a problem, the bigger stick. I reflect on the technologies being used, the money being spent, all while the citizens go about their day to day trapped in a surreal haze of normality, surrounded by chaos in a whirlwind of change.
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” pondered Juvenal, “Who will guard the guards”, or “Watch the watchmen”?
It amazes me that more than two and a half thousand years have passed since that question came into existence, two eons of change, and yet I find, as I sit here and contemplate the world as it is, that very little has changed at all.
As Stan Lee would say “Nuff said.”
