Superman Does Not Stand for Etcetera
[Calmer, gentler version here]
Leave it to a whiny liberal magazine like Newsweek to leave off the patriotic leg of the most recognizable comic book cliché. In his review of Superman Returns, Newsweek’s David Ansen can’t bring himself to say truth, justice and the American way:
In “Superman Returns” (written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris from a story they cooked up with Singer), the caped crusader for truth, justice, etc. (Brandon Routh) returns to crime-ridden Earth after a five-year detour amid the remains of his home planet. [emphasis mine].
It’s the “American way.” I suppose that when you accept global warming and gun control as truths and clemency for Mumia Abu Jamal and Tookie Williams as justice, the American way just doesn’t mean anything to you. This is exactly the kind of multiculturalism that makes people distrust the media. American culture is better than Stalin’s Russia, than Pol Pot’s Cambodia, than Che and Fidel’s Cuba, than Ahmadinejad’s Iran; than Saddam’s Iraq, than Hugo’s Venezuela and better than any other culture ever known to man.
Sure, it’s not perfect here. America has blotches and scars, just as any other culture. We eat too much. We idolize celebrity. We spend too much and save too little. We let the government get away with unconscionable neglect and malfeasance. We have a history of compassion punctuated with violence. But find a culture that is better than ours. Living or dead. The Greeks and Romans? Think slavery and greedy conquest by legions of conscripted farmers. Think sex with underage boys. Vomitoriums!
If you’re not convinced, imagine what would become of a man of infinite power who grew up in Cuba or North Korea. How long do you think your world would continue to exist as it is at the mercy of an omnipotent superman who thought, as socialists, communists, islamofacists and their ilk do-that might makes right; that governments are instituted to enslave mankind; that taxes are owed to those with the power to collect them? Instead, Clark Kent was raised in a nation of laws; where governments are instituted among men by the consent of the governed; and where taxes are a burden borne with patriotic reluctance, not blind obedience. That is what makes Clark Kent Superman. Not his powers, not his ancestry, but how he uses them.
He is an American and he is proud of it. Superman is not a shared resource, he is a product of our culture, no one elses. Other cultures may look up to him, but his origins are here. He is not to be shared. He cannot to be claimed by any other culture or country.
He is the symbol of everything that is good in America. He is our industry, our courage and our valor. He is the sacrificial kindness that gives humanitarian aid to people who want to kill us. He is the selfless courage and restrained power of our military, who have freed continents for nothing more than a soldier’s ration. He is the industrious mind, that sees things not just how they are, but how they should be-and works to close the chasm. He is the love that propels mortal men into an inferno to save strangers, armed with nothing more than a helmet and a firehose. He is the mother’s love that sacrifices her ambition for the welfare of her children. In short, he stands for Truth, Justice and the American Way.
[Note, the screenwriters, cowering in the face of world opinion, apparently drew the same or a similar conclusion as Mr. Ansen. Pity. It's a black mark on an otherwise fantastic film.]
People in Canada like him, is that ok you Nazi fuckhead?
Wow, someone has issues with reading comprehension.
The point isn’t that people outside the US can’t like him, it’s that he’s not FROM there and he doesn’t stand for their values. If he was raised in Canada he’d spend his time playing hockey and coercing doctors into giving free checkups.