Responsibility?

A wise man once said "With great power comes great responsibility."

This quote, the driving force behind Spider-Man's heroic journey has been a source of conflict throughout the years for our favorite web-slinger. The hero is forced day after day to choose between his personal well-being and his responsibility to others. Something that I find interesting is that the foundation for one of my favorite heroes is drawn straight out of the Gospel of Luke. When Ben Parker imparts this classic wisdom to his nephew Peter, he is essentially paraphrasing Luke 12:48 (From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked (NLV Translation)).

A parallel between the ethics discussed in Biblical Heritage and comic book heroes is much easier to make when looking at a comic book hero who finds his mantra in a scriptural paraphrase. After discussing sin in class this week it made me think of yet another definition for sin, one I briefly touched on in my introductory post. I think sin can also be viewed as neglecting to do the right thing, even if one doesn't do anything wrong. Spider-Man faces this issue in the early years of his almost five decades of publication history. Peter Parker's life as Spider-Man seems to bring him nothing but hardship, and as a result, despite all the good his alter ego does, Peter hangs up his webs and proclaims 'Spider-Man No More!'



This now classic scene (from Amazing Spider-Man #50 and later portrayed in the second Spider-Man movie) leads to mountains of conflict for Peter Parker. While he at first enjoys the freedom from the responsibility that his powers have given him, Peter's conscience eventually leads him to pick up his mantle yet again and resume his often difficult life of crime-fighting. This issue that Spider-Man faces raises many questions about the nature of sin. Is the violation of responsibility a sin? It certainly causes Spider-Man to become consumed with guilt, and thus I think he would agree. I tend to think that a sin of omission is just as bad as any other sin, if not worse. Just like the death of Peter Parker's uncle is on his hands due to his lack of action (as seen in Amazing Fantasy #15 and the first Spider-Man movie), any wrong that happened because of his cry of 'Spider-Man No More!' would have been his fault as well. When we choose to not use our powers for good, we are using them for ill, even if we don't use them at all.

And because I feel like making a musical plug, I will bring up what got me thinking of this issue before calling it quits. This week British band Oasis essentially broke up upon the departure of Noel Gallagher. My first thought was selfish. While I am not a huge fan of Oasis (I instead prefer listening to their rivals, and I think they are full of themselves), I enjoy their music, and their last album was pure brilliance (Dig Out Your Soul, check it out), so when I heard that Noel was leaving the band I immediately saw it as a violation of his responsibility to use his musical talent to bring the world decent music. Of course Gallagher had several excellent reasons for leaving, but I still wish it was not so. And that is how it is related. I'm going to go mourn and hope that the dissolution of Oasis leads to the re-forming of Blur.

'Nuff said!
-Cable

By Way of Introduction

This is my blog. So it is and so shall it be.

I will begin by explaining the name of my blog. I'm not sure why exactly, but as I sat in the friendly confines (do people really use that phrase apart from Cubs fans like I?) of Biblical Heritage today Simon and Garfunkel's song "The Sound of Silence" began running through my head. This was no doubt as a result of something that was said in our ethical discussions (I seriously think it was relevant somehow, but I can see how it might look as though I was letting my thoughts drift). Anyways, I started thinking about the lyrics to that very beautiful song and the one that states "Silence like a cancer grows" brought itself to the engine of my train of thought. That line, while sung in the harmonious voices of Simon and Garfunkel doesn't really stand out, but as I began thinking on it I realized how profound it really is. Nobody likes those awkward silences that interrupt conversations at the worst times, and most people don't like silence at all (I'm sure EVERYONE dislikes it to an extent). What Simon and Garfunkel do in this lyric is that they assign silence a simile that is very negative. Like cancer, silence can rapidly expand and it can be just as deadly. It is easy to point a finger at villains throughout our history, but that finger is seldom pointed at the people who could have helped prevent great tragedies, but chose deadly silence instead. Are we really any less guilty just because we do not engage in heinous acts if we could have prevented the crime by speaking out? Since this is an ethics class to an extent, this topic seemed very relevant, and as a result, seemed a fitting title for my blog.

In regards to the forthcoming content for my blog I thought I would offer a brief look at what I hope to write. First of all I would like to be consistent about keeping this blog, apart from the extra credit points, I think it's a good opportunity to organize my thoughts and come to a better understanding of what we discuss in class. As such, any encouragement to continue writing would be great(comments are always helpful and appreciated, I want others to be able to discuss what they think about what I'm writing)! Obviously I will be trying to relate my posts to what is going on in class. Be warned I will probably bring some of my favorite things into discussion. As the title suggests, I'm really into music and will possibly explore relevant song lyrics. Dr. Whitlark's inclusion of Batman in today's discussion inspired me to relate this class to comic books. Since I read a lot of comic books, this will probably happen a lot.

To close here is a couple panels from my favorite comic book. As we discussed the second amendment today, I felt that this particular scene was a good fit.



Thanks for reading and I hope to see you here again! Chances are it will be about the same bat-time here on this same bat-blog.

'Nuff said!
-Cable