The Downfall of the American Hero by Anonymous

The American hero has never saved anyone. He is not noble, selfless, or invincible. He doesn’t protect his country and will sacrifice everything you have for his own gain. Wrapped in a flag of fabricated patriotism, the American hero is a weed virulently consuming the nation. His tendrils ensnare the hearts and minds of the people, obscure the truth, and leave avarice and despair in their wake.  He justifies murder, advocates fascism, and inspires malevolence. The word "hero" comes from the ancient Greeks—mortals who had done something so far beyond the normal scope of human experience that their immortal memory is left behind after death. True to this definition, American heroes whether an individual, the military, or a higher power, have been deified by the media. American citizens, in response to this portrayal, are influenced to blindly show reverence to false idols. Heroes are unnecessary because they have allowed American citizens to be placed in a submissive mindset and rendered helpless. Heroes are everywhere.

Even a brief glance at American history, literature, and film will yield numerous examples and types.  The superhero, most relatable to the popular idea of the American hero, is flawless and incorruptible. They have a strong moral code and seek to aid others without expectation of a reward. Most individuals have at one time or another aspired to be superheroes and institutions that are seen to define the American hero, like the United States military have, for many men and women, appealed to that desire to be superhuman. Military slogans like, “We don’t need soldiers, we need heroes”, “Army Strong”, and “It’s not your everyday job” encourage people to join. This ideology has influenced American people to flock to the armed forces, donate to charities aiding veterans, wear military slogans, and even display bumper stickers on their cars.  There are recruitment offices in every town, every state. Heroic military propaganda proliferates in American society and soldiers are viewed as indispensable to the nation. An author who notably opposes militaristic heroism, Allen Ginsberg, in Howl and Other Poems, counters, “America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb”( Ginsberg, 39). Many contradictory military actions, like the invasion of Vietnam and war in Iraq, have been justified as rescue missions, innocent lives have been taken to prevent bomb threats, real or not, and wars have been fought to establish power and obtain resources. Regardless of opinions of the armed forces, if we define the American hero as someone who has put themselves at risk and who would die for their country, it would be contradictory to include every member of the military. Most members of the military have not and may never see active duty, yet their pedestal sparkles and they still consider themselves heroes. Others are praised for their “heroic actions” in the line of fire, for example dying for their country, but this is merely doing their job. By this logic, soldiers are not heroes, but tools of war. If putting your life at risk, especially for motivations of war, very evidently does not make you a hero—what does?

If we look to another example in American literature, the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, another type of a hero appears: the anti-hero. In stark contrast to the noble motivations of a superhero, anti-heroes do not have any heroic virtues or qualities. They are flawed and self-serving.  As a result, these individuals are more relatable and resemble the “everyman”. The protagonist of Kesey’s novel is Randle McMurphy. Though a drunk, boorish, and incorrigible, Murphy’s charismatic nature appeals to the patients at the psychiatric ward. Though altruism does not seem to have guided his actions, as a risk-taker, unfettered by authority, he inadvertently inspires independence and self-actualization in the other patients. Like the Hawaiian god, Maui, used rope to reign in the sun to force her to move more slowly in the sky, it could be said, that McMurphy captures the being, “freedom”, and shares her with the other patients. On the other hand, without his influence, they may have found greater strength in attaining their own notions of freedom, instead of idolizing McMurphy and striving to act as he did. The best sense of accomplishment is obtained through the self and even ignorance can be preferable to envy.  It is also likely that without the adulation of the other patients, McMurphy may not have been inspired to cross as many boundaries at the ward as he did, thereby preventing his death.

Idol worship destroys the concept of heroism and damages the hero. When an act of altruism is publicized, heroes becomes a martyr for profit margins. Fame and fortune become their call to arms, instead of a desire to aid the greater good. They appear on magazine covers, talk shows, and advertisements. They form charities in their name, sell merchandise, hold lectures. With the corruption that stems from sudden eminence, heroes lose the values that stirred their compassionate deeds and made them venerable.  At the end of the day when the cameras are gone, these  heroes,  pulled from the common populace and placed on a gilded pedestal, are often overwhelmed with guilt for selling-out, long for privacy and are crushed under the pressure to live up to media standards. No human being will ever be invincible, but if they do not uphold that facade, they will be disgraced in the public eye, no longer able to satiate their destructive need for recognition. People blindly seek to emulate these heroes, not because they are noble, but because they too want recognition and admiration, perpetuating a cycle of egoism that damages society and individual as a whole and allows both the hero and the common man to be used as a tool of manipulation. When once heroes sacrificed themselves for others, they now sacrifice themselves for the sake of the media.

Heroes have a parasitic relationship with the media. While the former leeches off media attention to satiate their own desires, the latter manipulates the hero into a tool to sway public perception and opinion. Heroes are manufactured into propaganda to fulfill the goals of the political machine. A prime example of this relationship can be seen in political scientist, Noam Chomsky’s, Propaganda Model. This model, detailed throughout his novel, Manufacturing Consent, seeks to explain the way in which media is manufactured and presented to the public and theorizes that conflicting interests discredit news sources. According to Chomsky, corporations run the majority of news sources and publish with the sole interest of increasing their profits and maintaining business relationships. Negative responses to a media statement or program are often repudiated when threats or bribes are received by business or government corporations. Ultimately, both the public and the hero have been negatively manipulated by exterior forces invalidating any compassionate acts that have been committed.

Heroes symbolize the qualities we'd like to possess. We define our ideals by the heroes we choose, and in turn, our ideals define us. Though much good has come of altruistic action, the negative repercussions of hero worship scars heroes by painting them to be individuals they are not and cannot be and cripples the common man, rendering him helpless, and inadequate. American heroes inspire a false sense of national pride and skew perceptions. The United States is not invincible or guiltless and publicizing our heroes and heroic actions cannot conceal that forever. If on a personal level, people begin to erase the word, “hero” from their vocabulary, and replace it with “inspiration”, the benefits are endless.  Heroes should be inspirations to enable people of all ages to find their own potential and encourage positive change in the world. Positive role models, not idols, can engage people in public activism and the production of positive and truthful media.                                                                                             

Works Cited

Ginsberg, Allen. Howl and Other Poems. San Fransisco: City Lights Books, 1956, 1959.

Print.Herman, Edward, and Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent. New York: Pantheon Books, 1988, 2002.

Print.Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. 40th Anniversary Edition. New York: Penguin Books, 2002. Print.