Media

Where Are All The Superheroes?

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I’m always thinking about technology, culture, and organization, because it’s kind of my job. Pop culture falls under that purview because it tells us a lot about how we think – or what we don’t think about. Let’s take a break from my recent deep dives into something fun.

Let’s talk Superheroes.

I love superhero stories as they’re a kind of metagenre. Where else can an alien, a detective, and a half-goddess team up to fight a megalomaniacal billionaire? Superhero stories are a chance to tell tales where characters and genres collide. Despite the oversaturation in our media, I feel we haven’t really learned what we can do with superhero stories (which may be a separate column).

But one common element to superhero stories is transformation via trauma. A bad trip down an alley may inspire an orphan to become a caped avenger. An inventor’s efforts to deal with heart damage inspires an armored suit to fight evil. Lots of people get exposed to radiation and chemicals and magic and get powers. Mutants pop up in an evolving humanity, and an entire short-lived DC comics story dealt with humans put through a horrific obstacle courses so the few survivors would activate metahuman potential. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blasters_(comics)

Trauma is a big part of superhero stories. Only, if that’s the case in a superhero setting, and said setting is a lot like ours, I’d expect a lot more superheroes.

Only one bereaved child decided to go on a crime-fighting crusade in a world of super-technology and succeeded?

How many traumatic deaths, how many wars and executions, would result in the deceased making deals with supernatural entities, or returning and spirits of vengeance, or whatever?

Shouldn’t there be a lot of inventors out there crafting all sorts of wild stuff that’s superhero-worthy? Wouldn’t startups be kind of a nightmare as every fifth person is secretly making a battlesuit instead of whatever useless product they’re working on.

With all the radiation, microplastics, and weird chemicals in our environment shouldn’t we have legions of mutants and superhumans? For that matter how many drugs (legal or illegal) might trigger superpowers? You go to the doctor, get a prescription, and discover that your cholesterol drug gives you super strength.

And that’s not dealing with aliens and supernatural creatures. But they’d probably notice the planet with so many costumed weirdos running around.

Most superhero tales have so much dense continuity, so many ideas slapped together, that the worlds they’re set in should be awash in superhumans. They’re just not because hey, then they’re not that distinct in a setting where they’re supposed to be distinct. Though My Hero Academia sort of goes there.

This issue of trauma, power, and transformation is something I think superhero stories can explore more. When power is accessible, or when the events that can lead one to develop it or seek it are common, what happens to the world? If you’re going to slam so many genres together, how long until there’s nothing recognizable in the world you’ve created?

Though, sadly, we probably won’t explore this as much for awhile. Superhero stuff seems a bit tapped out thanks to endless Marvel movies. But maybe at some point we’ll ask about power, causality, and what keeps a setting of superhumans from being overloaded – or perhaps asking what happens as it is . . .

Steven Savage

Only Dreams Of Wealth Are Permitted

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I saw this reddit post making the round, and I felt it. Kindly allow me less of a rant about leadership and projects and creativity to some feelings. Ok there WILL be some Project Management.

There are many things wrong in the world, and I pretty much rant on a lot of them (then usually mention Project Management). But I FELT this post hard. There’s lots of grifts and scams in America today, but there’s not nearly enough effort into fixing things.

I grew up in a place that still had depression era public works. I currently work in medical technology which is about solving problems as otherwise people die. It’s hard to imagine not solving problems, but then again that’s kind of the problem.

I think a lot of people just can’t imagine a better world and the way to get there.

In Project Management terms, we don’t have a charter to deliver or a plan to get there because we can’t dream it up. We are surrounded by wonders of technology and architecture, of history and providence, but we are impoverished in imagination. We can’t see a way forward and maybe not even a place to go.

Sure our media sells us “good” futures in the form of endless Star Trek series and assorted other stories – but these are also marketed to us, to appeal. The media will also sell us bad futures about dystopias and apocalypses, but those are also marketed. What’s not there is a road to the good future or a road out of or to avoid the bad future. We’re sold images without much solidity because it’s all about selling.

It’s all Product.

Our politics is the same way – and caught in the same loop. I dug up some satire from the early 80s and I’m seeing the same things being mocked four decades ago. We’re still doing the same bigotries and suicidal ideas and still satirizing them. It’s just like media, but let’s be honest, politics became theater decades ago as well, and everyone’s still repeating the bullshit. Real, big dreams seem to not be there, just the same nightmares and empty promises.

So what escape do you have? Well our media soaked culture will sell you grifts and personalities, so why not try to be like them? Invest in Crypto, become an influencer, whatever some rich figure currently bragging on your monitor is doing. We can’t imagine a better future, but folks can sell you the image of a richer you.

Being richer is the one thing you’re still able to imagine. Which is hilarious considering the small likelihood we will be rich.

I think we get caught in repetitive cultural cycles due to our media-political culture. T Here’s nothing to imagine, it’s all the same, and there’s just the promise of grift. It’s just we’ve gotten to the point where it’s hard to imagine hard-nosed, hands-on work to improve the world because it’s all images. It’s Society of the Spectacle, but the Spectacle includes people online screaming about mood-altering chemicals sprayed during wildfires that occurred due to global warming.

And of course me, the Project Manager, is constantly screaming inside just like all my fellows. What are the goals? The plan? Come on people!

Even though I can imagine a better future and a way to get there, it can be frustrating. So let me close by sharing a few things that helped me.

  • I’ve been just reading more. This leads to thinking. What I do watch more and more of modern nonfiction are specialists, experienced people, and indie creators and news.
  • I’ve been reading older texts on philosophy and history, seeing the world differently. It helps you imagine – and helps you see what’s been the same for centuries or aeons.
  • Getting hands-on locally with disaster prep. Just taking a CERT course was an incredible eye-opener to how the world works. Studying disaster prep made me appreciate work in California that goes back over a century in flood prevention.
  • Actual activism of any kind. Donate. Phone call. Do the disaster prep I mentioned. Get involved in anything that gets results. It’ll help you imagine what you want and how to get there.
  • Read up on other cultures and times. There’s a wealth of knowledge of how people have lived and imagined over the years. Even if some things seem out of date or antiquated, there’s plenty of insight. Seeing how people lived differently helps you imagine living differently.
  • Select your media. I’m not saying avoid trash – just know when you select your junk food. Trust me, I can’t judge, a friend has got me watching TWO Isekai deconstruction comedies.
  • Work with people. Talking to others can get you out of your imagination bubble.
  • WORK to imagine better. Write it down. Do a story. Let yourself practice dreaming.

No one is going to sell us a better future or a way forward. We have to make it together.

Steven Savage

Six Further Thoughts On Not Being Serious

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I’m still processing my thoughts over Ted Giola’s post about how the US and maybe Western society isn’t serious anymore. It’s all watered down, performative, targeted, and just weirdly empty. When I posted my own blog post on the subject, my friends and readers had feedback. I figure I’d round that up – and these might become columns on their own.

So to reiterate, Giola felt our culture lacked seriousness, and I agreed – we’re doing things that aren’t what they say we are, in a performative existence. Combined with capitalism which rewards knowing how to Push The Money Button, and it’s a toxic mix.

So here’s a few things I wanted to explore after hearing from people:

Good Unseriousness: Is it always good to be serious, can’t we be funny or have fun? I’d say that you can be funny and serious (George Carlin, Terry Pratchett), and sometimes the best funny is one with a grounding that is serious and all-too real. I’d also add that FUN might not be serious but it’s also not a lack of seriousness – what Giola targets is a deliberate unseriousness.

Lack of Agency: How often do we lack Agency, so why be serious in the first place? This is a fascinating thought because I “get it” instinctively – and I think there’s something true here. If you feel helpless, all the “serious people” are screwing around and lying, does anything matter? Then you end up with a kind of toxic, spreading, unseriousness.

Curation: We’re not trained in curating, checking facts, and so on. This leaves us to an onslaught of bullshit from politicians, mediocre media, and more. Even if we want to deal with things seriously, it’s hard to sort it out – and exhausting. Which leads to Lack of Agency . . .

Speed: Our culture and time move so fast that it’s hard to keep up with anything. We’ve not just got a lot of media and news, it’s all coming fast. It’s easy to get caught up in something unserious, it keeps us from cultivating, and maybe at some point we just give up. It’s also hard to pay attention to what’s right in front of us.

Misuse of Unseriousness: We’re also used to a very bullying culture that chides people for not being able to take jokes that are just disguised abuse. “Can’t you take a joke” is endemic in our culture, and horrible things can be both serious and not at the same time. This just distorts what’s serious and not – and maybe even the manipulators aren’t sure anymore. The Serious and Unserious become harder to separate.

Fear: This is a conclusion of my own – unseriousness for all its problems also can be due to fear. People are afraid to confront our climate issues. A second generation millionaire faces the fact they might only be there due to birth, not any skill. Politics is insanely complex. Confronting the world we live in is hard and unseriousness is both a tool to cover up your failings but also a possible reaction. Many a political figure has a crackling fear running beneath their worlds, you can feel it, but it seems they can’t.

So those are a few thoughts from some great dialog with friends and readers – and hopefully food for thought for you. I honestly do think we’re in a crisis of seriousness in the world, and its making everything worse. But it’s not as simple as it may seem, so exploring it, well, is serious business.

Steven Savage