Kavanaugh states in his article “The Philosophical Enterprise” that every man is driven to ask about himself, to question or to philosophy because of “sheer human exigency”. It is in this exigency that even if we are finite beings living in an infinite world that we still take the time and exert the effort to find out about ourselves. This journey of questioning in the hopes of finding the truth and the repercussions of the pursuing the truth is articulated in the new movie about the myth of Superman.
Superman whose alter ego is Clark Kent is a comic book hero whose ability to fly, super human strength and bullet proof skin is inherent in his genetics and are his weapon to fight crimes and injustice. It is eay for the people he encounters to fall in love with him, every kid wants to be him someday and every woman dreams about him everyday. To everyone he is THE man, no one could ever wish for more than what is already inherent in him. He had parents who love him, a job that he is passionate about and the woman that he loves is in love with her. Yet, of all the people he is related to, he is the one who feel most incomplete. He did everything he could do to find who he was and where he came from even if that means leaving everything and everyone who loves him behind. He left earth in search of his home planet with hopes that someone from his own kind is still alive. Maybe he felt the urge to find out if there are other beings out there that could repel bullets and burn building with his eyes like him. Moreover, maybe he needed to feel for once in his life that he is not different and finally feel that he belongs.
This need for self-discovery is what Kavanaugh’s was talking about in his article. Even Superman, who even if not genetically human, has that urgency to “know himself and do something about himself.” Every being then has that urgency to find out who they are, even if they are found less human because they are psychotic and murders children or maybe even those super human beings that flies around saving people. There is something about our past, family and society that describes and defines who we are. Our need to find out about ourselves is most of the time rooted in the environment we live in, thus a lack of information or love from any of the three things can cause more holes and more feelings of frustration. Those abused and tormented by their fathers when they were a kid can grow up sadistic and narcissistic. Furthermore, they can grow up challenging boundary lines in the form of murders and stealing or be devoid of the feeling of empathy like Superman’s arch nemesis Lex Luthor. On the contrary, people can grow up like Clark Kent, who is devoid of information about his real family, society and environment but is driven to seek the truth and be over protective of the once he got here on earth. The “lack of rootedness” to the three aspects mention (or other aspects of reality) will move a person to either question or blind himself of what the truth is. The two choices will yield different results as depicted in the characters of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent. It is not a question if I can search for the truth life Superman who flies but if I want to pursue the truth “be it palatable or not, be it a comfort or a threat”. At the end it was Superman who was better of, not because he saved the world, but because he learned to be satisfied.
More than the question of “who am I” and its connection to the psychology of a human person, we can also see in the myth of Superman the connection of creativity and quest for identity as suggested by Kavanaugh. The very thing that drives a person to create Superman, the comics and the movie may very well be same thing that drives the creators of DC Comics for self-discovery. The want to create a super hero who has all the abilities and traits a person would ever want and to dominate the world could have stemmed out from people’s questions and “what ifs”. Who can save us from Hitler (who was propagating Nazism in Europe around the birth of Superman)? What if we have the ability to fly and have bullet proof skin, wouldn’t we want to save the world? All of these are questions of self-discovery for they define what a person is not and we want to be. The need for a hero that is not biased and not politically involved around the 1930’s may very well be the reason why the creators gave birth to Superman. He can save the people from Hitler, the great depression and the threat of communism without being politically involve for he is from another planet and grew up in a small town with humble beginnings. This also highlights Kavanaugh’s point that the “starting point [of philosophizing] must be experientially authenticated.”
The myth of Superman articulates human exigency that Kavanaugh talked about in his article The Philosophical Enterprise. The need to question and self-discovery is an urge that no one can dismiss, not even Superman. It is also in this pursuit of truth do we best understand and become fully ourselves. The drive to question and the intensity to seek the truth can be the passion for creativity. This desire to become creative can never fall from the truth that it stemmed out of. Superman is a philosophy that is rooted in self-discovery, pursuit for the truth and is experientially authenticated.
Castillo, Justine
copyright.2006
you can copy my ideas, heck you can even copy paste the whole thing.. but who are you kidding?
comments? email me! annmarie.castillo@gmail.com
| |
|
