Heroes

I have recently begun rekindling an interest in comic books, stories and television that all have heroes. Who knows, is it a 40 something thing (my 40th BDay is coming up), or is it the cognisance of evil in our time that propels us to believe in fictional people that surpass the bad to allow good to triumph. By the way I can’t wait until the movie "Kick- Ass" comes out. The heroes whom I look to for moral guidance are Dr Who, Captain America, Frank Black (TV series “Millennium”), Inspector Adam Dalgleish, and Inspector Foyle (played by Michael Knight). There you see, not all heroes have to have capes and a super power. I think heroes tend to be not above reproach and in some way or another represent a certain aspect of ourselves that we either wish we are, or parts of us that already exist and are buried until required. I tend to think that heroes who think to solve problems and defeat evil are my favourite; this is where I and Henry Rollins can agree that the world problems can only be solved by our brains and not our bombs. Unfortunately, I do not feel that we have achieved that level of erudition ( Iused that word for my best lady Jane) to say goodbye to war. Imagine if world problems were solved over a game of chess or a multi-player HALO adventure (my son would win the Victoria Cross for sure). On the flip side I also like to think of my heroes using brute strength to conquer evil bastards that deserve a good solid shield to the kanoodle to end their reign of terror; hence we have gentlemen like Captain America. So a good solid balance of hero-ship is good, capeless people with intelligence and wit to solve the strategic issues and the hard chargers to solve the individual evils.

Henry Rollins v.s. Anne Coulter

Recently, I saw Henry Rollins speak and I was impressed with his style and his views. I was happy to see that someone is out there not afraid to speak about sensitive social issues; specifically, when he commented on the live performances from Bad Brains. Henry was not scared to tell people how he saw his friends and what they were doing even though it could harm this valuable friendship. He also made mention of Anne Coulter in Ottawa. Anne was due to speak but was cancelled due to student protests at the University of Ottawa. Henry made comment about this situation and had valid points to offer. I researched a little more about the situation in Ottawa and discussed it with my girlfriend. I came to the conclusion that although Miss Coulter can be outspoken and ridiculous in her words, she still represents issues that our country faces. In a book called "Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker he mentions that we should listen to the dark humour and in this case maybe we should listen to the ridiculous banter as dark humour in order to assess our views and opinions. Critical thinking in these days is paramount and I think that students at the University of Ottawa should have allowed the talk to commence and learn from it and not parrallel it with their own versions of violence and create an image of absurdity on both parts. This is the stiffling of free speech and acting with a mob mentality which is a form of violent behaviour. She does bring up valid points that people are afraid to talk about as does Henry Rollins. Unfortunately, for her she tends to become to defensive and comical to be taken seriously unlike Henry who can speak effectively and coherently and we can learn off of him. In a nutshell, for the same reason Henry is allowed to speak and be heard I think that Anne should have been allowed to talk. I am by no means comparing Henry Rollins to Anne Coulter, that would just be offensive I am only stating that we can learn from areas that we least expect.