Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4393 - 3486: Midnight Sons (48)

Seeing Danny's emotions slowly calm down, Shiller went to get a paper cup, poured himself a glass of water, and began to speak slowly:

"Since this is just a casual chat, I won't use those complex terms. To answer your question, we must start with the essence of a superhero."

"Human society has never had a perfect system. The way the human race exists means they cannot design and implement a perfect system. If we consider this as a given condition, then the emergence of heroes is almost inevitable."

"Since the system is imperfect, there will certainly be people who patch its gaps. They drive the progress of eras or society, and because they bring a better life to ordinary people, ordinary people call them heroes."

"You can think of superheroes as heroes with superpowers. They are a branch of heroes. As a branch, they are similar in nature to other existences within this group. They are complements to an imperfect system."

"So how are they different from traditional heroes? Of course, it's their superpowers. In other words, 'superhero' is not an independent term; it's a compound word. They are people with superpowers who patch the gaps in an imperfect system."

"And another question is: What's the difference between super villains and superheroes?"

"Evidently, super villains break the law. Most super villains significantly endanger the lives of others. Whether from a legal or moral standpoint, they are evil. They are the ones who destroy the system. So even if they have superpowers, they are super villains, not superheroes."

"But if a person has superpowers, yet neither commits a crime nor makes the world a better place, can they still be called a superhero?"

"I don't think so. The threshold for being a hero isn't that low. We can only say such a person is not a super villain, but cannot say they are a superhero."

"In this view, using one's superpowers to make society better is the standard for a superhero, and it's the only standard."

"Whether this superhero is advancing technological progress in a lab, or catching small-time criminals on the streets, they can be called a superhero because they have made society better."

Danny nodded. Shiller explained it in a straightforward way, and he understood it. But the question Shiller asked next was a bit complicated.

"So what if a superhero's actions harm society, then what?"

"Then they're not a superhero." Danny said, "Not only did they fail to make society better, but they also harmed others, they should be considered a super villain."

"Yes, exactly. A hero is someone who makes this society better. If you want to be a hero, you must make society better. You agree with this point, don't you?"

Danny nodded.

"So what if a superhero wants to make society better but just uses the wrong method, and ends up harming society, then what?"

Danny started to think, after a while, he said, "Maybe his intentions are good, but if it harms others, possibly he can't be called a hero. At least not to the harmed person."

"That's right. Although his intentions are good, if his actions harm society, he cannot be counted as a superhero. So does he count as a super villain then?"

After a moment of silence, Danny said, "I think maybe he does count. After all, his actions are indeed wrong."

"Then if this superhero has been saving people all along, saving many, except this one time he messed up, can we treat him the same way as we do super villains?"

Danny shook his head and said, "No, that's too heartless. It's also a fact that he saved many people; we can't treat him as a heinous criminal because of one mistake."

He then fell into thought, after a while, he said, "Are you trying to tell me that superheroes hesitate and don't take the most efficient actions to avoid becoming villains?"

"But those methods I mentioned earlier aren't considered crimes, right? Iron Man can control his robots well, and Captain America's influence is not something to be avoided. Should we sacrifice efficiency and take everything slowly just to avoid mistakes?"

Shiller smiled softly and said, "Don't rush, listen to me slowly."

"You might think that the harms in the examples I gave refer to superpowers getting out of control and killing many people, or rampagingly disrupting social order. But no, those are just the most obvious harms."

Danny turned his head to look at him.

"The true harm that real superheroes should avoid is breaking stability." Shiller's two hands were intertwined as he rubbed the knuckles of one hand with the other.

"The right to health is humanity's natural first right. To put it simply, everyone has the right to live healthily. So what is the second right? I believe it's the right to personal development."

"To develop oneself, there have to be conditions conducive to personal development. For example, receiving education, exercising, broadening horizons, and increasing knowledge can provide a person with developmental conditions."

"Society must first ensure the realization of humanity's first right, which is to let everyone survive. On this basis, efforts must be made to ensure the realization of the second right, which is to provide people with the conditions to develop themselves."

"And to have these conditions, society must remain stable. Schools should be able to conduct regular teaching activities every day, shops should be able to open every day, allowing people to buy what they want, and transportation facilities should function normally every day, allowing people to go where they want to."

"And if there is no stability, if schools are closed seven days a week, shops dare not open, and transportation facilities are completely paralyzed, then everyone can only hide at home. Their psychological and physical conditions may become stagnant, thus losing the right to personal development."

"So what could possibly lead to the loss of stability? The most likely is large-scale firearms warfare, followed by terrorist riots, rampant epidemics, poor governance, and so on."

"If there aren't these big issues, some small issues can also lead to localized chaos. And because they aren't big issues, people don't guard against them and don't care, it's even easier for them to repeat, causing stability to be repeatedly broken, and societies end up in a long-term state of disorder."

"Schools might not be closed permanently, but at least four or five times a month; shops might not be closed all the time, but maybe two or three days a week; transportation facilities might be good one day and bad the next, yet with some luck, one can still travel."

"It may seem like there's no problem, but in fact, this is also a serious restriction on human rights to personal development. Not to mention, in this world, some places are like this while others are perfectly fine."

"Ultimately leading to, some people are seriously restricted in their development, while others can almost infinitely develop. Society is torn in two, with one half of the people, even most of them, having to endure perpetual injustice."

"Superpowers, by their very nature, easily trigger such minor issues. Cases of school massacres due to out-of-control superpowers, assaults in commercial streets, and transportation damage are common. Considering the adverse effects I mentioned earlier, this must be taken seriously."

"Superheroes need to patch the gaps in this society, not be the ones creating the holes. A single superhero may not be a problem, and maybe even ten wouldn't cause much harm. But from what I know, there are more than two thousand superheroes in New York. If each did one small thing, the harm caused could be no less than a hot war breaking out in New York."

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

"In conclusion, superheroes' efficiency isn't limited by their abilities or their mindset, but by the societal demand for stability. Their efficiency ceiling isn't determined by themselves, but by the limits of ordinary people."

"But the limit of ordinary people is much lower than you might think. To be precise, they are quite fragile."

"It isn't just knives or bullets hurting them that counts as harm. That's only physical damage. What they can't bear are also mental injuries."

"Sudden shocks from unexpected events or long-standing life habits abruptly being broken, are both forms of mental harm for them. These might lead to anxiety, depression, or an inextricable mental predicament that prevents them from integrating into normal social life, restricting their development."

"Superheroes, besides ensuring that people aren't physically harmed, must also do their utmost to avoid inflicting mental harm, because both are equally painful."

"Even if it's not for the purpose of ensuring their development rights, superheroes should do so, because 'allowing fragility' is the core of humanitarian care."

"If a group does not give sufficient care and protection to the weak, but rather ignores or eliminates them, then no one will be willing to stand up, sacrifice their interests, and promote social and temporal progress. There will no longer be heroes, only opportunists and villains, and society will almost certainly not move forward."

"So let's talk about those methods you mentioned. Iron Man can boldly dispatch robots to the Bronx, but how do you expect Bronx residents to react?"

"Is Iron Man going to invade us? Are the robots going to rebel against humanity? Who are the weapons they carry for? Will I be shot just because I take out the trash today?"

"It sounds ridiculous, but you cannot prevent ordinary people from thinking this way. Or, what reliable reason do you have to persuade others not to think this way?"

"The same applies to Captain America. Everyone knows how influential he is. As soon as he holds a press conference, people will inevitably wonder: Is Hydra going to make a comeback? Is their headquarters hidden in the Bronx? Will I encounter terrorists when I go out to shop?"

"This kind of thinking makes people feel panic. They worry and feel fear, they will have sleepless nights, they will step out of their homes warily, and thoughts like these will intrude in while studying or working, making it impossible to concentrate. Is that not harmful to them?"

"Years of experience as a psychiatrist tell me that ordinary people's lives rarely have major catastrophic events. The things that wander in their brains, entangle their souls, and make them sit in front of me in agony mostly originate from such minor hardships."

Danny looked dazedly at Shiller. These words seemed like a gust of wind squeezing in through a narrowly ajar window, becoming more intense the narrower the passage, and once it surged into the brain through the ear canal, it became deafening and dizzying.

Shiller's words and demeanor seemed to suddenly grab his soul and lift him to high altitudes. Standing at such a god-like detached perspective, to overlook the myriad beings.

At such heights, things that he once thought were remarkable became fuzzy and indistinct. But there were too many things to see here, revealing the operational rules of minute details usually obscured, evoking an unprecedented vast compassion.

Finally, he heard Shiller's faint sigh:

"In human history, there has never been an endlessly unfolding heroic legend, except those birds that have long soared into the clouds. After witnessing mountains, rivers, and vast lands, while every grain of sand chooses to stumble towards its humble destination, they still choose to fly over their heads, shielding them from the scorching sun, becoming the most relaxed and pleasant breeze they encounter on their journey."