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Recently, there has been a spate of superhero movies being
released in Hollywood; The Ironman series, the Dark Knight series, the
Avengers, the Amazing Spiderman, X-Men First Class, Man of Steel and Thor. Now
I’m a big fan of comics and Batman just happens to be my favourite
crime-fighting, martial arts performing millionaire.
But all this got me thinking about the need for superheroes
in society. Why do we Humans need Super humans to help fight crime and other
such stuff? Why can’t we puny little creatures do it ourselves?
What is the reason? Why do we look up at these extraordinary
people and wish that they were real? Why not rely on the people whose job it is
and who is designated to the things that these people do?
I think it is because we do not trust the Police to do what is necessary to
protect us. We look around us and we see the devastation of society galore. We
see the crime rates increasing phenomenally, we see rapes and murders and
robbery and stabbings and muggings and drug smuggling and violence and no sense
of civil order. And then we think to ourselves, what would have been the
situation with one of these superheroes about.
We look towards the Armed
Forces and then at national security. If I talk only about India, we see
cross-border terrorism from the west, military incursions from the North,
foreign nationals being smuggled from the east and racial tensions to the south
of the nation’s borders. Then we hear about scandals in defence deals and
compromises being made with the security of the country. We hear about pilots
dying in plane crashes in peace time and we think whether this would have been
the case if there was a superhero about.
Then there are out beloved Political Leaders. We look upon them to lead the nation from the
front, towards progress and prosperity. But instead, we see large scale
corruption, lots and lots of red tape, money laundering, caste politics,
divisive strategies and financial failure. We see more walk-outs in parliament
in a single session than bills passed in a year. When we hear the politicians
blaming each other for ‘unfortunate’ incidents, we wonder if things would have
been different if we had a wise superhero about.
Well, we can wonder and wonder and we’ll probably never know
but can we pause for a moment to think of those superheroes we just criticized?
Yes, I mean the above people I just hit out at. I believe that there are always
“A Few Good People” who behave like
a Superman or a Green Lantern or a Wonder Woman in times of crises.
Can we not look upon the police officers who laid down their
lives at the siege of Taj and say that these were superheroes? Can we not look
upon the soldiers who saved thousands of lives during the Uttarakhand flood and
say that these are superheroes? Can we not look with hope towards the new
generation of politicians and see a brighter future after this night of turmoil
and say that these are superheroes?
Yes, we can.
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