Living in the age of meaningless trophies

  All trophies are meaningless, really. Unless fabricated from some precious metal they have no intrinsic value. Any value in a trophy is wholly subjective, a measure of some accomplishment as symbolized in the trophy. A trophy given for nothing is less then meaningless, like the proverbial beer fart in a whirlwind. It because we live in such an age that all the heroes are dead.

I first heard that declaration about thirty years ago. I heard it, related by someone else, from someone else about twenty years prior to that. This tells me it has been a process at least two generations in the making. I suspect this process, first of denuding and then later completely disassembling our heroes, began some while before that. Without any course correction it likely continues apace. I'm not making an argument on behalf of the hero. I'm not convinced, nor could I convince others that they are in any way necessary. Nonetheless, this is a phenomenon worthy of noting.

The hero, of course, is a literary archetype; inspired of myth and thus imparted with mythical powers or abilities. They populate our stories, ranging from character to caricature. Quite often the hero is in fact an amalgamation of more than one story. Even where they are singularly based, they are greatly embellished. Such is the nature of the beast. The modern hero grows morally ambivalent and exceedingly rare. For most of our storytelling history the hero has been a vehicle to extol virtue and otherwise inspire lesser beings. Today they are diminished, for they must be, lest all those undeserving trophy holders should be reminded of their shortcomings.

People that like you will, in most situations, tell you what they think you want to hear even when they may actually disagree. They do this for the same reason that there are trophies handed out for nothing. For whatever good intent these actions may hold, they are no less dishonest. People that dislike you are more likely to be honest when speaking to you; dishonest when speaking about you. So, liked or disliked, friend or enemy, the quotient for dishonesty remains constant. It is for this reason that there is room for more villains than heroes in our stories.

Armed with this knowledge one should then examine the kinds of stories that we are being fed. Where there is a scarcity of heroes, accompanied by an abundance of villains, one should think that this imbalance would be reflected in the composition of these stories. We do not find this to be the case. We are still presented with the binary narrative; black or white; left or right. Things that actually are absolutes are transformed into some multi-tangential spectrum, while the more nuanced and deliberately complicated matters of the world made of human constructs are presented to us in absolutes. Do you see a problem here? This rather defies logic, don't you think?

When you are consuming "news" keep two things in mind. First, know that there is more than one villain in every tale. Finally, if one goes traipsing about a dog park, then should find a foul odor upon stepping in something squishy, know that it is dog shit. There is no need to look to confirm this. Always trust your nose.