Thursday, April 28, 2011

Latest leftist outrage: "Superman" renounces his American citizenship

Whenever I claim that leftists in the U.S. fundamentally hate America and what it stands for, I am accused of exaggeration (and worse). The defenders and enablers of the left protest that they are simply "multicultural" and trying to recognize and celebrate the values of "other" cultures and nations as being just as valid as our own.

Let's leave aside the absurd claim that "other" cultures and nations are as good as America. Are U.S. leftists just "multicultural" relativists? Or do they actually hate their native land, its values, and its institutions?

Consider how hard the Culturati struggled to defend our current president for sitting in the pews of Jeremiah Wright's church for years, in mute approval, while the "reverend" denounced America in the most ugly terms. Then consider the same Culturati's vicious gang assault on the "Atlas Shrugged" movie, their collateral smears of Ayn Rand and her ideas -- and their undisguised repudiation of the American individualist values that film champions. It will be even harder for them to disguise their true motives when (not "if") they defend the latest outrage against a symbolic American icon.

I'm referring to the fact that the Politically Correct heirs to the DC Comics "Superman" franchise have decided to transform the caped champion of "truth, justice, and the American way" into an unAmerican citizen of the planet.

Believe it or not, "Superman" is now renouncing his American citizenship.

Here is the captioned dialogue from the forthcoming comic book:
SUPERMAN: ". . .I intend to speak before the United Nations tomorrow and inform them that I am renouncing my U.S. citizenship."

SECOND CHARACTER: "What?"

SUPERMAN: "I'm tired of having my actions construed as instruments of U.S. policy. 'Truth, justice, and the AMERICAN way' -- it's just not ENOUGH anymore."
No, we can't have American kids growing up to believe in, well, America anymore. America, and what it uniquely represents, just isn't "enough." Instead, our children must be taught to think of themselves as citizens of the world, holding their primary allegiance to the United Nations -- not to the United States.

Name me one other place on the planet where contempt for one's own nation is celebrated as the hallmark of moral virtue and intellectual sophistication.

This is not the first time that comic-book writers have, symbolically, renounced their allegiance to America. A while back, they obliterated "Captain America," temporarily morphing him into the unAmerican "Nomad" before returning him to his old identity (only after the writers scored their anti-U.S.-government political points).

And lest you dismiss this as much ado about nothing, understand that comic-book heroes are pure, idealized embodiments of a society's dominant values. Their stories are overt manifestations of our reigning cultural Narratives, which I've discussed previously.

Simply put, many of those now writing comic books for kids hate the American individualist Narrative. Alienated from that Narrative and the values it incorporates, they've spent years trying subtly (and sometimes, not so subtly) to undercut the characters and themes that represent it -- characters and themes that have inspired generations of children past.

Now, egged on and enabled by the cultural/intellectual/artistic elite of our Ruling Class -- and meeting little intellectual opposition -- they are openly celebrating their antipathy for the one nation on earth that has allowed them to enrich themselves, and gleefully vandalizing its icons.

[UPDATE: That this is not the work of a single warped individual, but represents the worldview of the whole rotten cultural establishment, can be found here, in this contemptible Wired piece by Scott Thill:
The Man of Steel throws down in outer space against a continually misguided Lex Luthor, who’s finally rewarded for his boundless ambition by becoming a petulant god. Supes also throws a pizza party with Lois Lane for his Kryptonian pals, who crowd his couch while chowing grub and chewing scenery. He talks cosmology and philosophy with an interstellar deity beset by guilt over civilizations he was perhaps too selfish to save, and goes head-to-head with a one-time pro athlete who’s become a superheroic show-off.

It’s just another day in the life of Earth’s most recognizable comics immortal, in a landmark issue penned by all-stars from film, television and comics. Previewed in the gallery above, Action Comics No. 900 features stories penned by Doctor Who’s Paul Cornell, Lost’s Damon Lindelof, Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner, The Dark Knight screenwriter David S. Goyer and DC Comics’ chief creative officer, Geoff Johns. . . .

In an age rife with immigration paranoia, it’s refreshing to see an alien refugee tell the United States that it’s as important to him as any other country on Earth — which in turn is as important to Superman as any other planet in the multiverse.

The genius of Superman is that he belongs to everyone, for the dual purposes of peace and protection. He’s above ephemeral geopolitics and nationalist concerns, a universal agent unlike any other found in pop culture.

The finest moment in Action Comics No. 900 comes when Goyer makes that exquisitely clear to everyone.]
Let me dare to resurrect the one word that best describes what this represents -- certainly in motive, if not in law:

Treason.

If you're a parent, I suggest that you begin to monitor your child's reading and viewing habits, in order to keep such anti-American garbage out of your home.

Meanwhile, all of us should protest publicly these nihilistic assaults on American icons and values. Because a lot more is at stake here than the fate of a childrens' comic-book hero.


UPDATE #2: More sickening is this motive: cashing in on international anti-Americanism.

7 comments:

Psyberwolfe said...

You're an idiot. Really. Apparently you haven't played along at home with Superman for a long while. Let's see what things Superman has done that isn't American. Genocide was my favorite along with clearly not defending the constitution on multiple occaisions. He hasn't been a paragon of American values for a long time. Maybe he's renouncing his citizenship because he's ashamed that in the end he has failed to live up to being a paragon of virtue.

Of course by now you've already filed me under leftist wacko. I just don't subscribe to your theory especially since you wash it down with a pathetic shot of protect your kids from this. Maybe you should read stuff and think about it longer than the two seconds so called conservatives are contractually obligated to.

Robert Bidinotto said...

What you describe isn't the "Superman" I grew up with in the comic books of the Fifties and Sixties, pal. I have no doubt that the vandalizing of his character began in the decades following that.

But that was vandalism at the hands of -- and by the values of -- individuals who no longer shared the kind of American individualism that was the philosophic/cultural soil from which the character blossomed. That is what he represented at the outset and for decades afterward.

So tell me: What's your beef, exactly? I couldn't follow your train of thought, for the life of me.

Is your complaint that the character was once, but is no longer, a pro-American icon? If so, that is my point.

Or is your real complaint that I am taking the writers to task for completing the process of philosophic obliteration that began decades ago?

And tell me, too: If he were still an American icon and "paragon of virtue," would you support him renouncing his U.S. citizenship? And why?

I'm just trying to find out what side you are really on, given the incoherence of your comment.

Robert Jones said...

Robert, I felt like renouncing my American citizenship on November 4, 2008. Shame on America for electing Barack Hussein Obama over a genuine war hero and patriot. If they reelect the sonofabitch, we're done for good.

Perry de Havilland said...

Joe Shuster, the first artist to draw drew Superman, was Canadian, so... :-)

Still I always imagined superheroes more in the dystopian 'Watchman' kind of way than the rather po-faced utopian 'Superman' notion.

For super-fantasy figures with really sensible individualistic morals that even Ayn Rand would probably have approved of however we have 'The Incredibles!

Brendan said...

Over the years the comic companies have seemed devoted to watering down and destroying their heroes. This is not just in regard to making them less Pro-America (though there is still plenty of that), but also in regard to destroying other qualities that make them heroic:

-Green Arrow's sidekick, Speedy, became a drug addict

-The Objectivist superhero, The Question, was turned into a zen/eastern philosophy nut

-Iron Man becoming an alcoholic

-Yellowjacket becomes a wife beater

The list goes on and on... No wonder I do not read comics like I used to.

Robert Bidinotto said...

I suspect that many comic-book writers -- feeling as if they aren't "real artists," and desperate for validation from the cultural elites -- are pandering to the latters' postmodern "values" by having traditional superheroes affect anti-heroic poses and pathologies. Equating vices and flaws with "depth of characterization," they drag icons from their lofty pedestals, first into the mundane, then into the madhouses and sewers. The "deeper," the better -- especially when this sullying wins the attention and approval of the Establishment. It's become a competition among cultural bottom-feeders.

I don't follow such things anymore, but please name me one comic-book superhero who still is depicted as having a shred of nobility and psychological health.

Brendan said...

That is a good question. I really do not follow comics much these days. I still do like the concept of superheroes, but mainly get my fill of them in some of the good movies that have come out lately. And I generally get most of my heroics from novels.

I have heard some good things about Bosch Fawstin's independent comics and Kurt Busiek's Astro City, but I have never read them, so I cannot offer an opinion.

A few years ago I got my hands on some of Steve Ditko's newer work, which is always uncompromisingly heroic, but lately seems very weird and disjointed. His older stuff is much better.

It is a real shame, I still think that comics can be a good medium, for kids or adults, but more often than not they do not live up to their potential.

And I agree with your assessment of many of the writers. They want to be validated and the only time comics ever get any press is when Captain America is killed or targets the Tea Party, or Superman renounces his citizenship, or Wonder Woman changes her costume.