Why Superman Will Always Suck
Sure, some people talk about Batman having it easy–what with being a billionaire and all–but truly people are discounting his struggle completely when they say that. Sure he has the toys, but he designed and made the “toys.” He did all his training on his own. He threw his life into the hands of fate and went out to find his destiny. He has a real reason to fight to keep others safe; he knows what it is to lose something so precious to you that it makes you physically hurt just to contemplate its memory. He takes a chance every night that he goes out. He uses his brain and skills that he has mastered throughout the years in order to fight with. Occasionally he gets knocked out and beaten to a pulp; look at the whole thing he went through with Bane and getting his back broken. And yet, here he comes, always fighting back, always trying.
Never giving up. He fights because he believes it is the right thing to do; because he knows the horrors that can happen; and because he believes that if he can use what he is to save just one child, one person, then it is worth it and he has done better than most of the population . . . super powers or not.
Superman, on the other hand, just is. Batman can be a son-of-a-bitch, but he has a reason to be. Look at the amount of insomnia that man has endured. Geez.
If you look at Kohlberg’s 6 stages of moral development, I’d say that Superman could be evaluated around:
Level II: Conventional/Role Conformity: Moral values reside in performing the right role, in maintaining the conventional order and expectancies of others as a value in its own right.
Stage 4: Authority and social-order-maintaining orientation
- Orientation to “doing duty” and to showing respect for authority and maintaining the given social order or its own sake.
- Regard for earned expectations of others.
Yup. That’s Superman alright. Compare with Batman then. I’d say that he’s here:
Level III: Postconventional/Self-Accepted Moral principles
Morality is defined in terms of conformity to shared standards,rights, or duties apart from supporting authority. The standards conformed to are internal, and action-decisions are based on an inner process of thought and judgment concerning right and wrong.
Stage 6: The morality of individual principles of conscience
- Orientation not only toward existing social rules, but also toward the conscience as a directing agent, mutual trust and respect, and principles of moral choice involving logical universalities and consistency.
- Action is controlled by internalized ideals that exert a pressure to act accordingly regardless of the reactions of others in the immediate environment.
- If one acts otherwise, self-condemnation and guilt result.
Hmm . . .
Don’t agree? Check out this article: Why Superman Will Always Suck.
