SUPERMAN! The man of steel. The all powerful saviour of planet earth. The practically undefeatable superhero. Yeah, we've all known him. Born with the greatest of powers and the mightiest of strengths of the planet Krypton and handed to earth by fate, he chooses to lives on planet earth disguised as CLARK KENT - a meek, stumbling bumbling, spine-less geek. Of all people, why does he - the all mighty SUPERMAN, choose to don a disguise?
Why does he pretend to be weak and incapable? Why does he put up with all the shit thrown at his meek alter-ego of CLARK KENT? Why not just be himself - be SUPERMAN, all the time?
Its the society. You see, humans have so long come to live in their gutters of mediocrity that it's stench has become all that they can breathe. Given anything or anyone that exceeds their capabilities or capabilities that 'they' know are way better than their own - is perceived as a THREAT.
People will do anything to put it down. Kill out even the smallest possibility that threatens their meek living. Its like the story of an island of blind men wanting to gouge the eye of the only man who can see so that he also falls among them. Its the plague of mediocrity that has since their very existence infested the human race. Its this infested 'society', the very pride of the HUMAN civillisation, that is the most inhuman in nature.
SUPERMAN, on planet earth, has to live with his family and friends, people he loves and cares about the most. And yet has to keep his identity hidden from them. He cant bare his soul to them. Cant reveal that he is not the fool they have known him to be. He loves, he cares, he trusts... but he still keeps his secret. WHY?
YOU SEE, he is AFRAID.
The man who can stare in the eyes of the greatest villans of the universe, battle the greatest evils in existence and face the greatest horrors without as much as flinching is AFRAID.
AFRAID of the greatest evil of them all - the EVIL we call SOCIETY.
The revelation of his secret identity is the only thing that can lead to his failure. Coz then he is weak. he is vulneable. Not only by the emotional bonds he has towrds the ones he loves, but also vulnerable to the SOCIETY of plague infested mediocres that inhabit the planet.
SUPERMAN is the representation of all the men we have known and shall ever know to have stood up against society. May it be you, me, gandhi, da vinci, socrates, galileo, copernicus, joan of arc - every person who has ever for even a moment stood up against the odds of society to excel, would know why Supeman needed Clark Kent. Every man who stood up against society out in the open - was tortured, punished, killed, convicted, jailed, assasinated, betrayed, terminated...... dissolved from their existence for the mediocrity of the plagued planet.
For everyman who ever breaks out of the mould, wants to stand up, stand out, excel, be radical or plain simply bring change to this world - SUPERMAN's 'COMPROMISE' as the feeble Clark is a lesson to learn. Coz the truth is, being Clark didnt really matter, for SUPERMAN knew what he was inside. By whatever the world did, his ego wasnt hurt, his pride wasnt crushed, his esteem wasnt washed out... coz he knew every thing the world subjected to Clark, or rather thought they subjected to Clark was the only things their mediocre selves could do to CLARK - who was infact SUERMAN's own MOCKERY o the measly Human Race.
In playing clark every single day of his brilliant existence, Superman was no less the superhero that he was inside. He was only stronger, mocking within, every moment, at the humans who pushed poor Clark around to make an impact, to feed their egos, to climb higher on their pathetic ladder of society, to make their buck. He mocked within, but he kept his guise. Coz as truly powerful as he was inside the shell of his guise, equally vulnerable was he without it.
SUPERMAN's ultimate defeat didnt lie in 'being himself', it lied in letting the world know about him being himself.
That's what it is to be SUPERMAN.
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