(When I Think,About Why)
I was born into a household that believed in the Xsuperman. Scriptures and sacred texts, folklores and fables taught me about the greatness of this Xsuperman. My education taught me that there is also a Asuperman, a B superman, a C superman and millions of other ‘supermen’ (I might not be completely informed about) who lived on this planet once and left a following to enlighten the ‘common man’ who gets derailed on his way to ‘Krypton’ which is the ultimate place to be in, a paradise that one must achieve after death. As more and more people read more and more comics, their beliefs in their own superman increased. Nobody had seen him. Nobody had heard him. Yet anyone could swear by the greatness of his own superman.
Problems started cropping up when followers of one series of the comic book started fighting brutally with others to prove the superiority of their own superman. Civilizations and ages in history were marked by the presence of followers of a particular series at the top of the socio-economic-political ladder. Nations were ripped apart and established to suit these different followers. Even within followers of a particular series, there were fights over which publication was better and more correct in its path to Krypton than the other.
Now leaders of these groups very well knew that it’s just a comic book in question. They were unfortunately smarter than the ‘common man’ and thought about manipulating the situation to their benefit. They advertised the idea, created a hell lot of merchandise and amusement parks to increase the scale of functioning of this idea and basically ripped the ‘common man’ off by making the masses dumbstruck by the grandeur of the comic world.
The more the common man looked at the leaders of the various superman series as a messiah, the more he donated towards whatever was being sold by them in order to get closer to Krypton (which is a desirable utopian world), making the leaders richer, powerful and more influential. The more influential the leaders were, the more followers they attracted. The more followers he saw the more unsure the ‘common man’ became of himself. The more unsure and insecure of himself the more he turned to external sources- to the pseudo supermen plying as important leaders in the comic world. And he saw them with even greater importance and reverence which thus brings us back to square one.
What was worse was that these ‘common men’ preached their own set of confused teachings to their children who turned to the pseudo supermen and followed their prescribed customs as if it was the most natural thing to do. Thus it was a vicious cycle that the world followed over and over again. When I think about Why, I have no answer. But did the ‘common man’ ever think about it? Was there a way to prove the existence of XSuperman or Superman A or any Superman whatsoever? Was the concept of ‘Krypton’ true? Was it worth fighting with each other for generations?
Thankfully in the World where I live there is also a section of sane population that wouldn’t take anything at face value. Let’s represent them as the ‘thinking men.’ The ‘thinking man’ questions what he already knows to check its applicability and explores into what he doesn’t know. He wouldn’t stop at answers simply because they were mentioned in a comic book. He is willing to research and experiment, learn and unlearn and even correct himself incase his solid beliefs are proved empirically wrong. Also he NEVER uses lack of proof for certain phenomenon as proof of existence for Superman or Krypton like that done by followers of ‘supermen.’ The ‘thinking man’ has a mind of his own. It’s very difficult to make a puppet out of such a man because he pays heed to certain something called as logic.
I was born into a household that believed in Xsuperman, but I choose to step out of comics and embrace the real world. And when I think about why, it’s because the second option at least gives me the freedom to do so, search for my own answers and live according to my own free will.
Now, Behold Ladies and Gentlemen for this is the freshest attempt at blasphemy which might just make me the youngest person to be ousted for voicing my opinion and exercising my freedom of speech and expression. Word of caution: my views won’t go down well with the ‘common man’ who feels threatened when anyone questions the very premise of his beliefs and justifies undoing of any scientific progress and rational action on pretext of protecting his ‘religious sentiments.’
Superman basically refers to God.
XSuperman-Hindu God(s)
A/ B/ C Superman - Christian/Islam/Sikh/Jew etc.
Krypton - concept of heaven.
Followers of a particular series - followers of particular religion.
Followers of certain publication- sub sects within religion
Amusement park/Merchandise- Places of worship that serve as non taxed commercial hubs as well as other accessories and religion related goods.
Comic Book - scriptures/religious texts/folklore- any booklet or set of beliefs on code of conduct that doesn’t leave space for rational thought.
P.S: I do not own the image used for my post. Taken from this link:
http://igamer.deviantart.com/art/Superman-58019847
