This Lesson Brought To You By Spiderman 3

[Matt Langdon]

I've just blogged about this, but am interested in some conversation about it too. Don't read it if you haven't seen the movie and don't want it spoiled.

I think the movie speaks strongly about the need for altruism is heroism. That's pretty obvious in the Peter Parker/Spiderman story and most discerning people will have noticed that. His focus turns from helping people to admiring how popular he is and things go downhill pretty quickly.

However, the other characters seem to have similar dealings with the issue.

Mary Jane seems selfish from the start. I don't know if I was having problems separating actress from character because Kirsten Dunst's recent claims that the franchise couldn't possibly go on without her made me wince. Mary Jane wanted to know if she was great, blah, blah, blah. When Peter wasn't giving her the attention she craved, she went elsewhere. That didn't turn out well for her.

Harry focused on his rage throughout and suffered for it. When he finally sees past it and thinks of others he is the hero of the whole story.

So, what other hero stories have the hero tempted by self-centred thoughts only to realize their errors? Or I guess any stories where they don't realize and fall from grace.

[Lychee]

I think Spiderman is the magnified version of who we can be, and who we all should aim to be. Wayne Dyer said in one of his books that you should give your life away. The people who spent their lives in service always did well while those who hoarded their possessions always lost. The dominating consciousness of this era seems to be of selfishness unfortunately. Everyone is looking to get ahead, everyone is competitive. It's not going much to help at all.

[Michael Chui]

I haven't seen Spidey 3 yet (probably do that this weekend), but I am fairly familiar with the Spiderman storyline. Spidey has been a hero for me for as long as I can remember, and when I'm playful, I still pretend I'm squirting weblines out of my wrist.

Originally Posted by Matt Langdon

So, what other hero stories have the hero tempted by self-centred thoughts only to realize their errors? Or I guess any stories where they don't realize and fall from grace.

I would talk about this a different way. In my Aqualgidus.org > The Definition of Love , I suggest that there is no such thing as actual altruism, but rather a kind of expanding perspective that your "self" includes more than just you. Thus, your selfish actions are necessarily beneficial to other people, because it wouldn't be selfish if it didn't help them. It's a question of identity, and identity is explored very explicitly in Spiderman 2.

Heroism, to me, can thus be characterized not by "putting others before yourself", but rather recognizing that you are not a terribly special part of yourself. You can die, and the world would not be obliged to mourn. Knowing this enables you to free yourself from the fear of death (or any other fears that might be in the way), allowing you to perform "heroic" feats that put you at risk while benefitting the greater good: yourself.

I'm currently reading Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect, and I'm waiting to get to the part where he talks about heroism, but in lieu of that, I have read his article on Banality of Heroism and I strongly recommend it. I would characterize Sugihara, his prime example of heroism, as someone who learned the same things Spiderman had to. Sugihara was informed by his samurai heritage; Parker is informed by his uncle's maxim: that if you have the power to act, you have the responsibility to act. Spiderman 1 (and I don't recall 2 well enough to know if it was in the movie) featured the song, "Hero": "And they say that a hero can save us./I'm not gonna stand here and wait."

[Matt Langdon]

Thanks Michael. Agreed on recognizing yourself as not more important than others. I like that sentiment.

I've had a horrid time trying to get a copy of The Lucifer Effect. I've read the paper and have talked to Zeno Franco and Phil Zimbardo about where they're going with it. I'm calling back next week to talk about what kind of collaborating we can do with moving the hero work forward. I'm really excited that Zimbardo has become energized to finding what it is that can combat the banality of evil.

[LifeFirst]

The movie is a joke....one of the most retarded films I've ever seen in my Life...

It was nothing like the comics.

[SamBeaven]

Originally Posted by Matt Langdon

Mary Jane seems selfish from the start. I don't know if I was having problems separating actress from character because Kirsten Dunst's recent claims that the franchise couldn't possibly go on without her made me wince. Mary Jane wanted to know if she was great, blah, blah, blah. When Peter wasn't giving her the attention she craved, she went elsewhere. That didn't turn out well for her.

I don't think it was exactly that he wasn't giving her attention - he was focusing on fixing instead of matching.

See, in their interactions Peter was always extremely energetic due to all the praise he was getting while Mary Jane was feeling down, and the difference between energy levels like that in a social interaction is at least very jarring (ever found yourself talking to someone who seems to suck all of the energy out of the room?).

What Pete should have done is deliberately lowered his energy to more or less match hers, expressing the same emotion with regards her reviews, and then gradually lift her up, rather than just talking about how to fix it which makes him seem detached or aloof from her emotional state, which made her go to Harry who managed to cheer her up emotionally rather than logically.

It's a problem that a lot of guys have. I tend to do it too sometimes.

Anyway, on the subject of heroes: Joseph Campbell wrote an amazing book called The Hero With A Thousand Faces, which I strongly reccommend if you're interested in this subject. It's rather psychoanalytical, and talks about concepts like the Hero's journey, which repeats itself in the lives of many people going through a trial.