What you can conceive and truly believe, you can achieve.
∼Clement Stone.
Comic book heroes like Superman, Superwoman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are seed ideas millions have absorbed into their thirsty imaginations, making them feel they too could destroy evil and save the world. When Jerry Siegel first created Superman, he initially modeled him on Nietzsche’s Übermensch idea of an ideal, a super man of exceptional physical and mental ability who created and lived up to his super values. The Übermensch sees Man’s escape to other worldliness as the subjugation of humanity, absolving Man of his responsibility to conquer his dissatisfaction with life, undermining his life on Earth, promising him hope outside of himself. The Übermensch does not seek life apart from his life on earth. In his heart he is the superman of the human species. The dream for us all is that perhaps there is a super man in each of us waiting to get out. You know you are super inside; you show yourself as ordinary on the outside but inside, in the heart of you, you are super. You know super is inside you because you have felt it.
Superman appears to be an ordinary human being, who transforms himself by his will-power, to become a super man of unlimited courage, integrity and genius.
The basic virtue of Superman is his altruism. He uses his powers to save people from their own follies. His actions are shocking because he is willing to take risks the rest of us can no longer contemplate. Superman has empathy for the suffering of others. His compassion, care and willingness to put his life on the line for another person make him a worthy hero to admire. He personifies the morality of an enlightened being fighting tirelessly for social justice. He acts on the truth in his own heart, beyond the pressures or concerns of society. He disguised himself to fit into society, he avoided detection and lived his life as a normal guy, hiding his hero identity from public view. We all dream of being a super hero, acting with courage and getting the proper respect we deserve. Inside each one of us, a hero is waiting to get out. You may think of yourself as ordinary, but secretly in your heart, you’ve felt super in the heart of you all of your life.
The hero is living in your heart and in the hearts of all people everywhere, expressing the excellence of your exceptional nature and the nobility of who you are. Unmask the illusions propagated by the promise of a better life to come and infinite riches, taught us by our controllers in politics, business and religion, who seek dominion over our rights, our freedoms and our world. Now your survival is threatened in so many ways, you must be super man, the hero of your own life. Engage the hero you know you are; build yourself unseen, in secret, in your heart, beyond all surveillance.
Featured image by Gareth Simpson. USA. Photo by Lisa Runnels. USA.