President Donald Trump told Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele he wanted to send "homegrown criminals" to El Salvador next and encouraged Bukele to build more prisons.
Super heroes are an individualist power fantasy. In the real world , real power comes from groups and collective action. Super hero stories imagine a world where the power to do good resides in the individual.
I believe it’s a reaction to our powerlessness in the face of things like this.
But even to take action in a group, you have to make the individual decision to join. You have to chose for yourself, which takes individual bravery, because even if you’re part of a group, the responsibility and potential repercussions will be yours to deal with. A group always consists of individual people. I read superhero stories as stories about finding the bravery in yourself (the superpower) to go and join the good cause despite the terrible danger.
You can have impact personally. That’s why many people hesitate to join a group and actually do something - they don’t understand only if they are personally active they can matter. Not doing anything because a person feels like activity is not realistic makes people resigned and idle.
Edit: I do understand your feeling of needing to have an impact. It’s important to understand what kind of activity is worth devoting ones self to. I personally feel motivated to be active when I watch superhero movies, so I guess it can have different effects on different people. As always, things are not black and white.
Super heroes are an individualist power fantasy. In the real world , real power comes from groups and collective action. Super hero stories imagine a world where the power to do good resides in the individual.
I believe it’s a reaction to our powerlessness in the face of things like this.
But even to take action in a group, you have to make the individual decision to join. You have to chose for yourself, which takes individual bravery, because even if you’re part of a group, the responsibility and potential repercussions will be yours to deal with. A group always consists of individual people. I read superhero stories as stories about finding the bravery in yourself (the superpower) to go and join the good cause despite the terrible danger.
I agree with what you’re saying, philosophically. A group is just a framework we put around individuals. That’s how it works in the real world.
But the idea of being able to have an impact on my own has a special appeal for me personally. It’s not a practical thing, which is why it’s escapism.
You can have impact personally. That’s why many people hesitate to join a group and actually do something - they don’t understand only if they are personally active they can matter. Not doing anything because a person feels like activity is not realistic makes people resigned and idle.
Edit: I do understand your feeling of needing to have an impact. It’s important to understand what kind of activity is worth devoting ones self to. I personally feel motivated to be active when I watch superhero movies, so I guess it can have different effects on different people. As always, things are not black and white.