Heroes

 

I Need A Hero

I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight.

What does it say about you if you need a hero?

We have been telling stories about heroes from the time of Greek myths, to today’s Marvel and DC Universe movies.  What does it say about you, if you believe in heroes?  In a previous blog post, I described a framework for human behavior, https://dbeagan.blogspot.com/2020/06/a-framework-for-human-behavior.html.  One of the attributes in this framework is whether someone favors User Optimal or System Optimal solutions.  Heroes by definition must believe in System Optimal solutions.  They clearly don’t seek a solution that is best for themselves, but seek the solution that is best for others. 

Superman could use his powers to be the wealthiest individual, but he chooses instead to save others. Batman is a billionaire but chooses to pursue justice, rather than his own pleasure.  In the movie "Civil Wars", Captain America seeks justice over order. When Spiderman says “With great power, comes great responsibility”, it clearly means responsibility to others even if it is to your own detriment.  Greek tragedies often describe what happens when heroes seek to advance their own interests, seek a User Optimal solution, and abandon seeking what is best for others, a System Optimal solution.

If you expect a hero to not seek their own User Optimal solution and save you, or you follow a story where a hero does just that, you probably also prefer System Optimal solutions over User Optimal solutions.   A hero may not only be someone who doesn’t get captured, but also includes those that get captured, depending on why they got captured and what they did once they were captured.  The best way to show that we admire heroes is to seek System Optimal solutions for ourselves. Then we can be our own heroes.