Action Figures For Imbeciles

Snip:

Have we really forgotten what a hero is? Have we have been so desperately numbed into thinking it's some overpampered spoon-fed monosyllabic C-grade Texas daddy's boy who thinks the world is full of "evildoers" and "sinners" and "furriners" and a desperately lonely Condi Rice?

Have we been so endlessly hammered with the celluloid lie that a hero is some sort of scarred grunting lug nut with a machine gun and a bandanna and big veiny muscles and copious fake sweat who blows away the corrupt sheriff or the evil rogue robot in bloody ultraviolent glory and gives us a big thumbs-up at the end before he self-destructs to save the world?

Maybe we want to believe the miserable U.S. soldiers in Iraq are heroes, are serving some sort higher and more noble good, are protecting us from some sort of impending looming evil that was never really there in the first place, when deep down we all have that sinking feeling they're really just disposable henchmen for BushCo's endlessly gluttonous petrochemical and political stratagems.

Who will save the children from karmically poisonous toys? Who will save California from awful thick-necked actors who don't know a fiscal policy from a dumbbell? What sort of hero will rise up and resist this degrading onslaught, fight back the demons of ignorance and misinformation and BushCo lies and "I'll be back" moronism? Who, in short, will be the hero to conquer all this bogus heroism?

Because the hero you most need? It's you. Simple, really.

(Excellent Morford piece, as usual)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/08/22/notes082203.DTL&type=printable

and makes me laugh and feel better in the face of all the craziness. Thanks for posting this.