Supervillains and Real Life

Comic book villains have been around for years. I suppose if you just concentrate on those who focus on mass crime, you can go back more most of written...or even oral history. Nonetheless, with Dark Knight still fresh on my mind, I read this:

In Chicago, he called on activists to “avenge” the injuries of co-organizer Rennie Davis, who had suffered a concussion battling the police. Hayden exhorted the throngs: “Make sure that if blood is going to flow, it will flow all over this city.” Hayden wasn’t alone among future Chicago Eight defendants in his violent rhetoric. “If a pig comes up to us and starts swinging a billy club,” Black Panther Bobby Seale counseled, “and you check around and you got your piece, you got to down that pig in defense of yourself! We’re going to barbecue us some pork!” Abbie Hoffman called for “a huge orgasm of destruction,” and (along with sidekick Jerry Rubin) daydreamed of poisoning Chicago’s water supply with LSD. Hearing the reckless pronouncements of the riot’s ringleaders, Americans—already weary from several years of deadly urban rioting across the country—supported the Chicago police by greater than 2–1 margins. “The whole world is watching!” the protesters chanted, but polls showed that not everyone saw events their way.

The focus on this article was actually how 1968 was not a good year, and those protesters that wanted to "Recreate '68" were not helping anything. What caught me was how those statements and ideas were so close to the plans of comic book villains throughout recent history. Poisoning the water supply...stopping the police from keeping order. What are they trying to accomplish? They certainly aren't helping people see the positive side of their arguments. I'd almost think they're acting like grade schoolers on the playground. "If we beat up Mr. Soandso, we could have recess ALL DAY, MUHAHAHAHAHAHA."

We have a system set up. If you're not getting your way, then it's likely that most people don't want that way. Suck it up and move on. Terrorizing citizens and actively fighting police are not helpful strategies to your cause.