Antihero • noun • (ann-tee-hee-roh)
Definition: a person who embarks on a selfish journey, neither a hero nor a villain
Origin: English
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Reducing people’s existence to polarizations such as good vs bad, Black vs white, and hero vs villain can be one of the easiest and most misguided things that we can do as we try to make sense of the world.
We all know that the world is not simple, but we also know that we yearn to simplify the world so that we can feel like we have a tangible grasp and understanding of our ever-changing environment.
Throughout human history, societies have often cultivated myths to help explain the world around them, and these myths would include stories of heroes and villains. Societies did this in order to sustain themselves and to educate people about the type of person they should and should not aspire to become. These myths do not reduce the world to good and bad but can show people the benefits of becoming someone who does good and the pitfalls of becoming someone who does bad.
The majority of existence resides between these polarizations and the hero vs. villain dynamic, and due to this, it is important for us to turn our attention to the role of the antihero, which is neither hero nor villain but resides within the two and contains attributes of both.
The antihero is a very relatable person, and their relatability poses a profound societal problem. No society should be content with a plethora of antiheroes because in celebrating the antihero, people will become discouraged from becoming a hero and more inclined to regress into a villain.
The American Antihero
The main similarity between the hero and the antihero is that they both embark on journeys, but the nature of their journeys is different.
The hero embarks on a journey due to a commitment to find or cultivate something greater than himself, and this is often why the hero’s journey entails a return to home. The hero intends to use the knowledge they obtained on their journey in a way that will benefit their community and exist as something greater than oneself. The journey is not for fame and fortune, but for the benefit of others.
The journey of the antihero, however, is a journey focused on oneself. This journey could be as simple as a weekend vacation where you neglected your various responsibilities at home and work confident that somebody else will clean up your mess while you were away. Being a bit more responsible and thinking more about others could have made this weekend getaway heroic.
It is not a journey in the pursuit of something greater than oneself. The selfishness of the journey differentiates the antihero from the hero, but the appeal of the antihero is that one can see glimpses of heroism along the way. This selfish individual may decide to help out or befriend a stranger during their travels and, in acting for the benefit of others and not just themselves, we can see their potential to become a hero. All people fall within the realm of the antihero at some point in their life, and it is comforting to see the potential for all of us to become a hero.
The antihero’s selfishness is what makes them similar to the villain. The villain does not need to embark on a journey to implement their myopic, selfish agenda, and there is no limitation to the extent of their selfishness.
The tug of war between the hero and villain, and the hope that we can one day become the hero makes the antihero a very relatable and compelling figure. Unfortunately, America embraces and celebrates the antihero far too much.
America embraces the antihero because American individualism indoctrinates all Americans to believe in the supposed benefit of an individualistic worldview. We are taught to believe that if all of us do what we individually believe is good then we will all be able to live as a collection of happy individuals. America’s individualistic philosophy is insane and destroys culture, and is the inevitable philosophy of an ethnocidal society.
American individualism encourages all of us to embark on selfish journeys. The journeys are not explicitly selfish, but our cultural focus on individualism inclines us to be selfish during our journey.
Leaving home to attend college is a transformational journey in American life, but the rising cost of education means that many Americans do not attend college in order to learn skills that can benefit their community. Instead they obtain a degree that promises to pay them enough money so that they can pay off their student loans. The financial burdens placed upon young Americans as they are launching their professional careers discourages heroism and encourages them to become either an antihero or a villain because they can only afford to focus on themselves. After Americans have liberated themselves from the equivalent of a state-sponsored debtors' prison because they pursued an education, they can then focus on causes greater than themselves and work to become a hero.
American society does not create a mythology promoting real-life heroes. Our heroes all have superpowers, and far too often American television celebrates the antihero.
In the sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, the celebrated main character, Raymond, is a typical American antihero. The premise of the show is that everybody loves him, but the tension of the show consists of his and everybody else’s selfishness constantly creating unnecessary drama. The cast members then use humor to minimize the impact of the drama they have created, and then the episode ends with a reminder that deep down they all love each other. The appeal of the show is that despite all of the selfishness, we still get to see a glimmer of heroism in each episode. No one ever actually acts heroic, but we are led to believe that it could occur in the next episode.
Far too often American heroism can only be found in a hoped-for tomorrow.
The Ethnocidee and the American Hero
Within an individualistic ethnocidal culture that celebrates the antihero, the actual American hero often emerges from the culture of the ethnocidee.
Due to the ethnocidee not being able to live off of the exploitation and division caused by ethnocide, they must cultivate a strong and resilient community within the oppression of ethnocide. The need to forge community in order to withstand terror creates a strong sense of community and a greater desire to act on behalf of your community and not just yourself.
The journey of the ethnocidee often has a strong social focus, and a commitment to elevate others and not just oneself.
Within an ethnocidal society, the numerous acts of heroism—both big and small—of the ethnocidee are often overlooked and dismissed as inconsequential. Since ethnocidal division consists of dividing white and non-white people and ensuring that whiteness remains the dominant force in society, the heroism of non-white people will not be something that America’s ethnocidal society is prone to celebrating.
Within America’s Black community, a simple and constant example of Black heroism would be how Black Americans frequently say that they are doing some activity “for the culture.” Black culture is greater than any individual, so embarking on a journey or engaging in an activity to empower something that is greater than yourself is heroic.
The phrase “for the culture,” is a micro example of heroism, but America’s Black civil rights icons also fight for freedom on behalf of a collective culture that is greater than them.
Much of America’s heroism derives from the ethnocidee. Even when the ethnocider attempts to become a hero on behalf of their culture, they often either become an antihero or a villain because their culture is one that professes the benefit of individualism.
Professing the collective benefit of selfishness will never make one a hero, and heroic white Americans are often those who forge community with people of color and work on behalf of a community that is greater than themselves.
The absence of heroism within the culture of the ethnocider means that America attempts to depict villains as heroes. Confederate soldiers and politicians have statues and memorials erected across America to celebrate their villany that America calls heroism. Textbooks are re-written to say that the Civil War was fought over state’s rights and not slavery. America disregards that our Founding Fathers supported slavery and that many of them owned hundreds of slaves, and we are encouraged to celebrate facets of their life that could be interpreted as heroic.
America’s ethnocidal society has a greater inclination to embrace antiheroes and depict villains as heroes instead of cultivating and elevating American heroes.
Life is filled with journeys and healthy societies create mythologies and social structures to encourage people to become a hero as they embark on their journey. An individualistic philosophy will never create a hero, and as America shows, individualism and division also impedes those who aspire to be heroic.
All of us contain the attributes of the antihero, but we must find a way to forge the selfless journey of the hero instead of the selfish journey of the villain.