Defined by Fate

With all of these superhero movies coming out, it got me a thinking: what determines if a person becomes a superhero vs a supervillain? Is it a choice or is it decided by circumstance?

For example: Say this dude eats some tainted meat, but not just any tainted meat, tainted organ meat (say in a steak and kidney pie gone bad). Now he has a super power! What power, you might ask? I'll give you a hint: his is called The Organ Grinder. Yep, he has the power to turn anyone's organs into ground mush just by thinking about them. Could this person every be a Super Hero, or no matter how good or moral he is at the core, would he become a Super Villain? How could he uphold justice with this power? "Stop, thief! ...or you will regret it!" "I've just Ground your left kidney, it is not to late to turn back, thereby saving your right one from a similar fate!"

Another example: A man goes in for some therapy, but unbeknownst to him, his therapist is an alien mindbender. He imparts an ability to his patient by accident: anyone he touches becomes self actualized. Since he was going to a therapist, he was obviously evil to the core, but was trying to learn to suppress these urges. Now that he has Power, could he become true to himself and become a Super Villain? With that specific Power? "Now my Master Plan is in place! Soon, I will rule the world, right before I destroy it! All by the use of my Super Power of making people feel truly alive! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!"

The ability to make people's heads explode? The power to destroy the frontal lobe of anyone whose hand he shakes? Can change any one thing in the Universe, but a random person dies every time he uses his power? Can any these people become daring do-gooders or are they defined by their abilities?

The Edward

Blame the relatives

Operation Chaos has taught me something about the world. I hear people from the Democrat Party yelling that this isn't fair, and this should be illegal. I was asking myself, do they not remember when this happened before? When Clinton was locked in as the candidate, people from the Democrat Party voted in the Republican Party primaries. And when there were certain states in the general election that were already voting for a specific candidate, there was vote trading going on with people in swing states. (ie since it is all or nothing, states with 75% can have 24% of them switch votes in exchange for a state that is under 50% to move them to well above 50%, giving them two state wins, rather than one win and one loss.) Rush Limbaugh didn't invent anything new, this has been going on for years. And each time it happens, people are outraged that it is happening to them, as if it were the first time, and they vow that they will do repay this offense next election!

That is when it struck me, it is the first time for a lot of people, since they weren't the people in the party before. A new generation of voters have arrived on the scene, and for them, this is all new. I realized this is what happens in conflicts that last centuries. Before now, I never really understood how people could fight and kill each other over things that happened hundreds of years ago, well before they were born. Now it seems clear, it is from the present actions that were based on revenge all the way back, repeating itself over and over.

Someone offends. Rather than forgive, the other side holds a grudge. A few years later, they repay that grudge. The new generation doesn't see that this has happened before and blame their current injury on the people that hurt them. So they now vow revenge. This can go back and forth, because each generation is hurt by a previous generation on the other side.

If humans could instead just say "Wow, what they did sucked. But that is just who they are. We forgive them, but want nothing to do with them in the future. Let's move on." then these things would end. So it must be a part of human nature to not accept others for their flaws, but instead hold it against them, hoping for that day of revenge in the future. Our society at large is a reflection of who we really are, and that fact that conflicts can pass from one generation to the next speaks volumes.

The Edward