just people

"You're a relic. In this world, power is the only thing that matters. You and those other no name heroes, you're just people. In the great scheme of things, nothing you do has the least bit of significance. ... I'll waste you and a billion like you before I let any power rival America's. It's my duty." - General Wade Eilling

"You don't know what the word means" - Shining Knight

"You can't win." - Gen. Eilling

"I'll die as befits a knight..defending the weak." - Shining Knight

"Why don't you give up?" - Gen. Eilling

"Why don't you?" - Shining Knight

- Justice League Unlimited Season 2, Episode 7 "Patriot Act"

It's scenes like this that help show why I love comic books, cartoons, basically the whole super-hero - or just hero - mythos. Ultimately they are morality plays; stories that help you ask the questions of what is good & what is evil? what is right & what is wrong? How do we as people pattern our lives to bring out the best in our humanity? How is it that we stand always on the verge of slipping into evil ourselves & becoming what we hate?

Eventually I'll maybe put down an essay on explaining the appeal of the super-hero mythos, but for tonight, i want to keep it short. There are so many days where I feel like Gen. Eilling's speaks the truth; that we as mere humans, as 'just people' will never make a difference, that nothing we do will have true & lasting significance. After all, doesn't Solomon, one of the wisest that lived come to the same conclusion that everything done under the sun is meaningless & vanity?

But for whatever reason, there is always a part of me that (foolishly) refuses to fully embrace this idea. Some days it's a very small part of me, but it's always there... this naive belief that individuals can make a difference in this world. That regardless of whether we can or can't change things that it is still good, noble, right, necessary to do what is right, to stand up for people, to protect the weak, to care for others...

... and it's random things like Sir Justin, the Shining Knight's, words that help fuel this belief, that puts the fire in my veins...