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Thursday,
February 19, 2004 |
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We
need a Joker to our Batman
Claire Sellers
is a freshman chemistry major from Idaho Falls, Idaho.
In
the world of black and white photography, it is considered
best to avoid the perfect whites and darkest blacks. It
is the grays that give depth, the grays that tell the
story and shade the object. In life, however, these grays
are what take away our depth and blend us together into
a finger-painted collage of something quite ordinary.
A good friend once told me, when critiqued for his outlandish
views and tendency to argue, that this world needs a villain.
“I just choose to fill that spot, at least for some
people,” he said to me, completely serious. He has
a point, and a position I envy. A point which started
me thinking — our world is filled with toe-stepping
grays, all too afraid to make a move that would label
them “radical” or “extreme.” But since
when has it become a bad thing to be extreme about a cause?
Even our politicians have stopped standing for anything
concrete, and now they all agree in a race for who can
attain the most “moderate” position. This turn
in our world throws us into upheaval; if there is no controversy,
then there is no spark and no spice to life.
I can see two solutions to this growing problem. If we
were able, as a nation or as a world, to unite in a common
cause, it could halt our apathetic views toward anything
substantial. Unfortunately, our world shrinks smaller
and smaller every day. Choices for this great unifying
cause are dwindling. There is no more West that awaits
our manifest destiny; no more conquerable governments,
at least in today’s society. Therefore, there is
no option but to turn out of ourselves, out of this earth,
and reach, quite literally, for space.
The 30-plus years our government has sat, stalling, on
a move like this convinces me that this first option will
not be the solution, at least not while our nation sits
listlessly staring at televisions and muttering curses
about the size of NASA’s budget. Therefore, I believe
our world needs an enemy.
Too long has our world sat, inactive, attempting the fight
against nebulous enemies hatching vague plots in cramped,
stale caverns. But if we have become unsure about our
role as the valiant, brave, and righteous folk, the bad
guys have become even less sure about their evil ways.
Gray abounds unfettered; neither side chooses to attempt
the purity of white or the malevolence of black. Where
does this leave us? We are unable to fight against anything
and unwilling to fight for anything. Some will argue that
our fathers and our fathers’ fathers earned this
peace of mind for us; it is our duty to accept and enjoy
it while it lasts. But who among us truly possesses peace
of mind? It is human nature to fight, to argue, to desire,
above all else, to win. Our society, left with nothing
over which to triumph, simply sits idly making nice with
those surrounding us. We need an enemy. We are lapsing,
and we want this fight, any fight, a chance to overcome
evil and prove ourselves honorable. This urge can be seen
in our culture: our films more and more portray the lives
of comic book heroes. No one remembers, however, that
without the Green Goblin, there would be no Spiderman.
No one wishes for another Holocaust. But our society needs
something provoking, something about which we can all
get excited. Even if that excitement entails jumping up
and screaming at the injustice, it is better than leaning
back and watching, indifferently, as our society turns
grayer and grayer. |
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