No Heroes Allowed

As a disclaim most of what i say is 100% speculation, and any reasonably intelligent person could point out all the flaws in what I'm about to say. I'm going to say it anyway because, gosh darnit, this is my blog and not yours. 

In a world today where we absolutely obsess over super heroes, I'm going to make a bold claim that all the heroes are dead and we have killed them.

 

I don't say this lightly. I don't mean this to say that no one does heroic deeds anymore. I simply mean that the world we have today is not made for heroes like it used to be.

Well, not romantic heroes anyway.

 

This is Jesse James. The real Jesse James. You've heard about him in your history class. That's the type of hero I'm getting at. 

Now, when i think of a hero i don't necessarily think of someone saving someones life. I think of someone who's exploits are widely known and eventually romanticized to the point where they become larger than life.

I believe the biggest factor that deters from a hero being born today is the media. If someone does something sepctacular, we know about it, almost instantly. With the internet and the media stories don't have the time to breathe. It's like they are born prematurly. This is a problem for heroes because their exploits are made known, pretty factually, right from the start, and it doesnt have time to be blown out of proportion.Word of mouth is an important factor in building a reputation and the truth spreading too quickly is bad for the hero.

(Obligatory Jack Sparrow Gif)

"You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way" - Patrick Rothfuss

Its worth noting that by this logic there were no real heroes to begin with. Actually, now that I think about it perhaps there is another reason the media has killed the hero. There are now too many heroes. We hear about heroic deeds everyday, but because we are saturated with them in the media  their significance is dulled to the point where we no longer care.

I'm doing my best to write a "hero" in my story. I want to create him in the right sort of way that he can stand up to the villans i've crafted. The more i think about it though, the more i realize life isn't for heroes. Stories are for heroes. I can make the world to create my hero, but here, today, in the now, our world isn't made for heroes. Reality doesn't bend it's knee to the individual, our world is more about us as a collective group of people and in someways that's good but in others it's kind of a shame.