Cowboy or superhero?
Caveat: this post is unlikely to impress fans of nuance, nor will it encourage those who worry that Americans are simple-minded rubes. But it's fun, promise.

When I was in college, I read about and watched many Westerns (still do, actually), but we didn't talk too much about superhero stories. Douglas Kern thinks that the superhero has replaced the cowboy as our central representative myth. He makes a pretty convincing case, and you don't have to agree with the politics in his piece, or even that America is right or good, to agree with Kern's assertion. If you ever wondered why superheros wear garish costumes and don superhero personnas before going out to fight crime, Kern has a novel explanation (hint: it's not cause they're gay).

The central dilemma of the superhero story centers on the problems of power. How shall it be used? Who has the right to use it? How does it affect those who use it? And nearly every superheroic story resolves this problem in part through creation of an iconic superhero persona. Superheroism demands the creation of a second self, grounded in the same morality and history as the original self but with brighter colors, greater swagger, and an unstinting sense of self-sacrifice.

The superhero's solution to the problem of power is America's solution, also: we have created a second self. Domestically, we prefer a laissez-faire government that leaves us alone to pursue our own projects. But internationally, we recognize an obligation to confront threats to world peace -- and we detect that we are the only agent with the power and the will to do so. Thus, when evil looms large, America the tolerant and unimposing becomes America, the mighty and relentless. America, the purveyor of soft post-modern values, becomes America, the exporter of surly pre-modern men with rifles. The government that leaves you alone becomes the government that pulverizes you with its super Marine strength and Tomahawk Missile vision. The administration that couldn't find your country on a map yesterday becomes the administration that renames the cities on your map tomorrow. Off go the glasses, on goes the costume, and America becomes a superhero, fighting with astonishing powers in the name of the very ideals that give it the illusion of weakness and indecision.

Parents, take those guns, ten-gallon hats and fake Indian headdresses away from your children and buy them some damn Underoos! And dads, if your kid likes to put on his aquaman skivvies (and nothing else) and run around the house pretending to fight underwater crime, don't worry. He's not necessarily playing for the other team, he's just, err, acting out being American (yeah, that's what I was doing). It's probably good for him.

So the question must be asked: GW...is he more (or rather, does he imagine himself more) Wyatt Earp or Captain America? I always say, if the tights and cape fit...

- posted by Anonymous @ Thursday, February 03, 2005