Fevered Rantings

I woke up at 4AM the other morning with a headache, stomach cramps and chills. (Even my armpits had goose bumps.) I knew what this was. This was Sick. Sick is no fun. For the rest of the night I couldn’t fall back to sleep, but I wasn’t exactly awake either. My brain wouldn’t rest, thinking the same thoughts over and over again, until I had them figured out. It had the urgency of an important message I needed to convey to the world.

Here’s what I kept thinking:

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

If Superman ever did exist he would be considered a god on Earth. He can do things no other human can do and he protects us from danger and delivers us from evil. (He rescues us from floods and defeats the terrorists.) Even if he denied he was a god (which I’m sure Superman would do, he’s a good guy) there would still be scattered groups of people who would worship him.

How can he not feel an obligation to them? They have placed their safety in his hands. And how can he deny the temptation to use a little bit of his god clout to get these people to stop being violent, to treat each other right? First he may say something like “Treat others as you would treat yourself.” I have no problem with that. Then he may say “No more guns. I forbid it.” I’m kind of on the same side of the issue as Superman here, but this makes me uncomfortable. Gods and Superheroes should not get involved in politics. Before long Superman is saying “No funding to artists who offend me.” Superman is absolutely out of line there. But how can we deny him? He rescues us from floods, defeats the terrorists. Is it too much to ask that we do whatever we can to make him happy? Also, if he gets mad there’s not enough kryptonite in the world that’ll save us.

Before long Superman’s sitting on some throne, demanding concession after concession. We’re slaves to his every whim. We’ve lost our freedom. He’s lost his integrity. It’s a lose/lose situation. Sure it would be nice to have someone rescue us from floods and defeat the terrorists, but this is too high a price to pay. It’s better that Superman doesn’t really exist. We just have to rely on ourselves to save the day.

- CPW

www.thewaitstaff.com