The biannual hysteria of election season is in full swing. One side has declared a full-fledged resistance against an antagonist who seems to savor his role as antihero. The other side rallies behind its champion as he campaigns against a supposed conspiracy of subversive agents, mendacious media outlets, and proto-tyrannical tech companies. Meanwhile, the siren song of socialism beckons from the ash heap of history, with new strategies for splintering communities in diverse ways.
With the stakes so high and the atmosphere so tense, life feels like an epic blockbuster of cataclysmic proportions. People aren’t satisfied with merely being on the side of the heroes; they wish to count themselves among the heroes. Those with whom they disagree are not opponents but enemies—outright villains who do not need to be persuaded as much as vanquished. The very people who call for greater empathy are the most unremitting in their condemnations, denouncing and dehumanizing those who hold heterodox perspectives. Stone-throwing is back in fashion, and the slightest slip up or calumny can ruin any alleged offender.
A previous president was blasted for saying that if you weren’t on his side you were with the terrorists, but now unless you participate in assailing the target du jour — even if only by joining an online posse of hashtaggers and retweeters — then you’re accused of complicity with unmitigated evil. That’s a doctrine of war even when society’s presumptive moral and spiritual leaders advance it.
I’m not saying there aren’t crooks and scoundrels in public life who warrant opposition by every means proper to a civilized nation. But when everybody effectively lines up against each other like characters on a comic book cover, primed to clash — heroes on one side and villains on the other (or just as often, two groups of self-proclaimed heroes) — something has gone awry and there’s bound to be casualties.
If Thor sees the Destroyer rampaging through Manhattan, or Daredevil senses Stilt-Man breaking into a high-rise, they’re right to stop them. But even Spider-Man — whose guilty conscience compels him to interrupt whatever wrongdoing he witnesses — does not leave people dangling from lampposts just because he disagrees with them. Yet how often lately is Hulk-like behavior observed among those who cannot bear any criticism, smashing anybody who doesn’t applaud them?
Like Wolverine defending mutantdom against existential threats, people hack and slash at anyone perceived as slighting their group, however slightly. Ordinary people are casually labeled fascists to fabricate a basis for silencing them — as if Captain America ought to punch half of the country for exercising their fundamental freedoms in order to shield the rest.
And who needs anything as elaborate as Iron Man’s armor when cell phones suffice to humiliate one’s foes? Batman himself would commend the surreptitious surveillance of anyone suspected of hypothetical potential for wrongdoing.
Social media is the preferred venue for a lot of virtual heroics, by people with what Roger Waters once called “the bravery of being out of range.” People can indulge their hero syndrome without risk or sacrifice. Expressing the correct sentiments through screens from afar suffices to establish righteousness nowadays, without the need to actually exhibit good character or perform actions beneficial to one’s community. It has never been easier for sanctimony to sanctify. Who needs moderation, generosity, integrity, decency or wit when envy, indignation, resentment, bitterness and belligerence do the trick? Who needs evidence or arguments when uncharitable insinuations, deliberate misconstructions and ad hominem attacks are so effective?
Let’s restore civility even in the midst of our disagreements. Let’s refuse to be manipulated by those who have power to gain or profit to make off of our readiness to enlist as their minions or henchmen or cannon-fodder. Support the candidates you prefer and get personally involved in the causes that motivate you. But turn down the 24-hour chatter channel. Stop refreshing headline aggregators. Don’t drown yourself in comments sections. Avoid social media feeds filled with pride and fury masquerading as compassion and concern.
Heroism begins at home and in our neighborhoods. Do some actual good commensurate with your real abilities, rebuilding community from the ground up. Remember that what you share as participants in and beneficiaries of a society committed to liberty and equality outweighs whatever separates you. Treat the people you encounter in a dignified manner, defusing hostility rather than enflaming it. Remind others that you’re not the cartoon villains that cable news and message boards say you are. Only those itching for a fight insist otherwise.
