Are The Childhood Heroes We've Created To Blame For America's Demise?

Editor’s Note: Check out the previous installments in Rhonda’s series on Ernest Becker’s ideas:

Part 1: What Makes You Human?

Part 2: George Clooney Didn’t ‘Save Puppies from Nazis’ In Monuments Men

Part 3: Is Self-Esteem a Social Construct Or the Soul’s Self-Awareness?

“Once upon a time there lived a little boy name Tom. He was brave, strong and he always obeyed his mommy…” and so each story would begin.

Every afternoon my little hero would meet a bear, a lion, go into the dark woods, or find a treasure. Each story led to a decision to be made, and our hero always chose what was right even when his faithful companion Little Bear (the scraggly teddy) did not. Every story would end the same–“because Tom always”…my voice would soften and fade as my own four-year-old Tommy would drift off to sleep.

When there are mountains of sand to conquer and frogs to capture, little boys find it hard to take time for a nap. However, I needed one desperately, so I made up wild stories to settle down my adventurous boy and feed his imagination. All in hopes of holding him still along enough for sleep to pin him down.

Until I read what Earnest Becker had to say about heroes, I hadn’t given those days of tale-spinning, or heroes for that matter, much thought.

Becker writes:

“Two centuries of modern anthropological work have accumulated a careful and detailed record of this natural genius of man: anthropologist found that there were any number of different patterns in which individuals could act, and in each pattern they possessed a sense of primary value in a world of meaning. As we said earlier, short of natural catastrophe, the only time life grinds to a halt or explodes in anarchy and chaos, is when a culture falls down on its job of constructing a meaningful hero-system for its members.” Ernest Becker, [Emphasis mine]

What stories do you tell your children?

Perhaps a more important question we, as parents need to ask, is what stories are the culture telling our children? What are the childhood heroes we, as a culture, are providing?

If in fact, Becker is correct and the only time life grinds to a halt or erupts in chaos is when the culture falls down on its job of constructing a hero system–we could be in more trouble than we thought. Although, I think we’ve always known it deep down–that’s why we are so disgusted with the likes of Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber. At one time they held the admiration of young children.

What if Cyrus and Bieber aren’t the problem? What if, it goes deeper than that?

“Socrates was sentenced to death because he tried to do something of this, tried to urge Athenian youth to independently assess their own hero-system. We glimpse again the tragedy of Athens and Rome in the U.S. today, as the entire society is beginning to crumble around an archaic commercial-military hero-system, unrelated to the needs and challenges of contemporary life; but to turn the hero-system around to one of peace, social service, the reconstruction of society, seems beyond the imagination and capability of the people.”

The idea that our society is beginning to crumble around an “archaic commercial-military hero-system” on the surface sounds noble–at least by today’s standards.

Could it be that the very opposite is true? The rejection of our military heroes beginning with those returning from Vietnam began the demise of our western culture? What we have always valued within our military is bravery. Not just to take a hill or capture an enemy, as the term “military hero system” implies. Instead, it’s the bravery it takes to sacrifice themselves for others. That is what we honor within our military. The reality of life is that real sacrifice and heroics come under the most horrific of circumstances. Those are our heroes. There is no comparison to our soldiers and that of Rome.

There has been a sustained attempt to dismantle the military system of heroes and demonize them. At the same time, concepts such as honor, trust and bravery have been tarnished. The disinformation put forth that tells our young that peace is won without bravery or blood, has destroyed the real life heroes.

What type of “reconstruction of society” has occurred in its place? We are left with leaders not willing to sacrifice the smallest luxury in their vigilance to rescue us from the consequences of our own choices.

“…the idea of a Law of Nature or decent behavior know to all men is unsound, because different civilizations and different age have had quite different moralities…If anyone will take the trouble to compare the moral teaching of, say the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hindus, Chinese, Greeks and Romans, what will really strike him will be how very like they are to each other and to our own…Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a two and two make five. Men have differed as regards what people you ought to be unselfish to–whether it was only your own family, or your fellow countrymen, or every one. But they have always agreed that you ought not to put yourself first. Selfishness has never been admired. Men have differed as to whether you should have one wife or four. But they have always agreed that you must not simply have any woman you liked.” — C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity

American children once led dangerous and adventurous lives. That was a time when education also meant a steady diet of actual literature. Children sailed the high seas with Moby Dick, they became stranded with Robinson Crusoe. It was understood that a child’s character had a lot to do with his heroes. Those characters become heroes through adversity, but what made them triumphant was the willingness to pay the personal price for a something higher than self-gratification.

Consider this: The original Harry Potter alone has sold over 400 million copies, and Goosebumps 300 million. Compound the matter with the fact that so many children spend the bulk of their imagination deep within video games. Whether or not these two activities are bad, is not the issue.

What reading Harry Potter or playing Grand Theft Auto doesn’t do is allow children to walk with greater men. What the video game doesn’t do is provide a real accomplishment– only the illusion of one.

Both entertain and occupy a fertile mindn rather than giving it something to admire and emulate.