Sunday e-mail 28th July

Why we need Superman

What are your politics? Does it matter? Whatever they may be, there are certain names I bet you’re sick of hearing: Biden; Rishi; Farage; Le Pen; Macron; Sturgeon. Don’t you wonder whether politicians are the best people to trust with politics? I decided to think about heroes instead. I think you’ll agree we need some.

Heroes - an unfashionable subject, to be sure. If it were less so, perhaps we’d have less need for them. With no hero to look up to – with no role model - how are we ever going to get out of this mess? Who will remind us to keep going? Stoics or statesmen, gurus or gunfighters, that’s one thing heroes have in common. They keep going.

They have a goal. They work towards it. They fall down, they suffer, they feel humiliated. But where you or I might surrender, heroes never do. They get back up and keep working towards that goal. That’s what makes them what they are, and what they are is…well, it’s an inspiration.

A world without heroes (it almost goes without saying) is a world of mediocrities, a world of good-enough, make-do, take-five. It’s a world where the headlines look like…well, exactly like the ones we’ve been seeing these last several months.

Psychology must accept part of the blame. By that I don’t mean academic Psychology, but popular Psychology, the Psychology of self-esteem, self-acceptance, self-love, self-nurturing. ‘Love yourself,’ says every self-obsessed self-help wizard out there. ‘You’re good enough as you are’. (‘But you don’t even know me,’ I keep telling them. ‘I’m not good enough. I’m really not’. They never listen. They’re too busy self-gifting.)

If we believe we are good enough already, well, so too is the place we fell down. It’s a good enough place, for sure (it’s good enough for the likes of us). No need to get back up: this is good enough. This is good enough.

Now, I know you, personally, are almost unimprovable as you are. Hell, you subscribe to Crime & Psychology: you must be! But, even so, just for this week, let’s all think about our inspirations. Let’s think about our heroes. That’s the subject-matter of this week’s Crime & Psychology newsletter. Look out for it on Wednesday.

This week’s brilliant bullet-list features five heroes, the places they fell down, the bruises they had to hide from their mothers, and the goals they never took their eyes from, even as they dressed their wounds and reassured their followers that all would be well in the end. Use them for inspiration!

One other thing you could use for inspiration - this blue button here.

Also this one.

And this.

Use that one over there, too. Be a hero – help keep this newsletter alive! (Or simply thank your friendly neighbourhood psychologist by buying me a coffee!)

·       Jason was to be king of Iolcos. At least he was before Uncle Pelias took over. Jason fled for safety. Promised his rightful kingdom if he accomplished an impossible task, Jason dashed off withb his Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece.

·       Think you’ve had it rough? Kal-El had it worse. His whole planet was destroyed while he was still a baby. No one would have blamed him if he’d spent the rest of his life moping about, but no siree, not he. He grew into the perfect archetype of a hero. Superman does good for no other reason than that it is good.

·       The Man With No Name was not. He actually had three, one for each film in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy. Joe-Manco-Blondie doesn’t talk much about his origins (or anything else for that matter) but what he does say is enough. ‘I knew someone like you once. There was no one there to help.’ He shot the baddies, brought peace to a small town, and, most cockle-warming of all, reunited a mother with her son.

·       Zorro had nothing, but even that was stolen from him. Greedy capitalists decided that they were the real owners his Pueblo de Los Angeles. Zorro may be gone now but never fear - he’ll be back whenever the peasants need him. He was an example of a so-called ‘social bandit’. Much more about them, soon!

·       Wart. That’s not a good name with which to start out on life’s journey. After christening, you’d think his prospects could only improve, but then Wart learnt about his own questionable conception and his guardian’s delightful hobby of transforming his young companion whimsically into fish, ants, and badgers. That trick must get old quickly. But then Wart found the sword in the stone and changed his name to Arthur and everything got better in a hurry.