2006-07-25T20:56:00.001-07:00

The other day, a most esteemed and learned friend of mine averred that a hero who falls from the lofty standards that he sets for himself and the world is no longer a hero-he is just another ordinary being with extraordinary skills. My most humble and ignorant self was thoroughly confused, as to whether I was asked to shift the context from flesh-and-blood role models to the comic book ones.

The very concept of a hero is that of a person who is the quintessence of excellence in his field, and who has shown extraordinary fortitude and skills in overcoming the impediments that society and circumstances have tried to dissuade him with. He is therefore, fit to be revered, to be emulated, to be admired, because they, in spite of being ordinary individuals otherwise, have constantly thrived on the desire to surpass their own abilities, and stretch their individual limitations. No single human individual has moral and ethical standards lofty enough to be immutable. And those extraordinary men are heroes since their achievements more than compensate for their common follies, not because they do not possess them. And the presence of an Achilles’ heel is but the characteristic of any and every great man.

The soldiers of Genghis Khan, the ruler of the single largest ever empire in the history of humankind, massacred tribe after tribe and plundered village after village, under his orders. Asoka, the greatest apostle of peace India has ever produced, was a savage warmonger in the earlier parts of his life. Kautliya, the great Indian economist, was known to have indulged in dishonorable activities. The brilliant ruler of Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate, send Jesus to the rood. Shahjahan, after having built the Taj Mahal, severed the hands of the craftsmen so that they can never emulate another Taj. Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of the ‘New World’, has been found guilty of torturing his crew and letting them starve to death. Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the constitution of the nation which the world today considers the torch-bearer of liberty and equality, was the master of scores of Black slaves. Gandhi, the most extraordinary man whose political genius and selfless sacrifice ameliorated a fifth of the world’s population in 1947, advocated some views which were, ironically, detrimental to the progress of the nation for which he finally gave up his life for. Bill Gates, the single most successful entrepreneur in the last quarter of the last century, was tried and amerced for carrying out unfair trade practices. Even the world’s most powerful person daily doles out death to scores of innocent impoverished children of the Middle-East.

Therein lays the catch, my friends. Though we have seen over the period of recorded human history, that all great men are essentially men with the keenest of abilities, but fallible nonetheless, a section of skeptics harp about their shortcomings and magnify them, as if normal human shortcomings besmirch the loftiness of great individuals.

Well, after all, it takes a big heart and an open mind to be appreciative and forgiving.

We would rather bask in the sunshine than complain that it blinds our eyes. But for a bigot, his mind is but the pupil of an eye-the more light is shone onto it, the more it contracts and refuses to be enlightened.

PS Referring to comic book heroes, even they make mistakes, my dear. Superman didn’t even know how to use his inner-garments in their proper way. Therefore, even superman is very, very human. Is he not?

MY MUSINGS