comic hero

COMIC HERO
Before I forget, look for a guest article tomorrow. Being a guest writer is a mark of distinction and prestige, paying absolutely nothing except Super Loyal Minion brownie points. I don't care about style ( or lack thereof ). In fact, the worse you are the better I'll look. I only care about the topic. So don't worry if you write like I draw ( misshapen stick figures ). Send in your articles and I'll post them on a weekend. Since I have such a large troll population who think I don't know what I'm talking about there should be plenty of submissions from those smarter than I. Or is it smarter than me? I'm sure their grammar is perfect also.
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Today we talk about the comic hero ( no, not the comic book hero ). I was reading an article from the Archdruid Dude ( http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ ) about recommended books and he listed "Muddling Toward Frugality" by Warren Johnson. Wait I minute, I said to myself, I have that book. Picked up for a few cents at a thrift store, I had never gotten around to reading it. So I pulled it out and started on it and ran across a page that stood out. It tied in with the Grey Man article from Rawles blog last week. He described a book, "The Comedy Of Survival" by Joseph Meeker, and how there are two types of hero's depicted in classical literature. The tragic hero and the comic hero. The tragic hero is the one usually honored. He will not compromise his values. He challenges forces greater than his own. He risks everything for the correct stance. Coming immediately to mind is the well armed militia member waiting to rise up after gun confiscation and smite the un-Constitutional government. These are the kind of hero's we love and wish to be like when we grow up. How many movies have this kind of hero? 99%?
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The problem with this kind of hero is that they are uncompromising. We hate politicians that compromise, yet the individual that won't is both a hero and, depending on your type of view, someone like a terrorist. Every radical, uncompromising stance has an opposite viewpoint. When neither side will concede, wars occur. When you are waving the flag and voting for Bush to send more troops into a foreign country whose only sin was to own oil, do you stop and think of the tens of thousands of civilians killed outright or slowly through lack of medicine or sanitation or through radiation poisoning? Of course you don't. You are uncompromising in your view and to tone down the rhetoric and jingoism would be cause to be thought unpatriotic. I'm not judging those in the military. I think they are doing a fine job. Doing even more than is expected of them. To go back a third or forth time to a combat zone is commendable. My problem is both with the civilian leadership that sends them there and the civilians that encourage it because they won't allow any rational discussion of the topic.
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And to quote from the above source, " ...the tragic hero is usually an unpleasant individual to be with; he takes himself very seriously; he is unwilling to compromise; and he is condescending to anyone who disagrees with him." For all the admirable traits, those are the ones less than commendable. The other kind of hero is the comic hero. He is usually thought of as a buffoon. Silly, takes few things seriously. His goal is to survive and enjoy himself as much as possible. He doesn't want to fight, but merely to try to outwit his enemies and those in authority. Living life, surviving. Those are important and no cause is worth dying for. Life is not a struggle between right and wrong, but a thing to enjoy itself. This could be termed the pragmatic viewpoint. The bad thing with this type is that they don't take much seriously. They aren't interested in your crisis de jour. Most would be termed the sheeple. Both have good and bad points, but ask yourself this.
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Which view will help you adapt and survive?
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