Manic Dystopia

So DC (Superman, Batman, etc) is introducing an MMORP (think World of Warcraft).  As one might expect when you create your character/avatar you can choose to be either a hero or a villain.  Your choice affects your experience within the environment -- goals, associates, privileges, etc.  Whenever I have this choice in a game or a hypothetical, I always choose the villain.  There are fewer rules.  Through the 90s, as I came to age, many were infatuated with the "anti-hero."  That's one that's classified as a white hat, but doesn't have the strict moral code of a Superman or Captain America.  Characters like the Punisher and the Crow (we all know that one) expanded the acceptable behavior or those counted as "good."  I have no desire to explore the construction of the general morality that defines what is "good."  Sadly, for anyone who reads this, the baseline of your moral code lies in Judeo-Christian scripture.  That is to say, "good" and "bad" are not subjective, they are ultimate, well-defined facts.  Again, that's not what I'm here to rant about.  I would argue that the only thing that separates hero from villain is context.  History is written by the victors.  All of the great heroes of history (say George Washington, Ghandi or MLK) have held fervently to their beliefs.  They have gone beyond the call of duty and put themselves in great danger towards the attainment of a self-conceived vision of a better world.  Oddly the same might be said of Napoleon or Hitler.  Heroes are romanticized, are seen alabaster pure, just as villains are seen to possess only flaws.  As popular media elevates the hero myth, American culture becomes obsessed with saving everyone forever, regardless of utility.  Every zygote, every brain dead vegetable, every senile fool with complete renal failure.  Our unprecedented success as a Democratic Republic gives the false impression that the current society is equally respectable.  Just because all men are created equal does not imply that they remain so.  American culture remains ensconced in a tattered white robe, unable to contemplate the necessity of bold action.  We have grown fat and lazy.  We have fed too long at the trough of entitlement and manifest destiny and the results are disgusting.  This country is half-asleep, more concerned with the reality within their HDTV than with the world before their eyes.  We have become mechanical, following the rules, doing what we've always done under the erroneous assumption that the American Dream is not dead.  Pulling oneself up by the bootstraps has become a false promise as the populace now values homogeneity over challenge and monetary conformity over the magic of existence.  If one accepts the premise that the country has become an irredeemable quagmire of pomp and circumstance, of irresponsible self-preservation, then one is aware that something must be done.  Too many are unwilling to take action that is unpopular, that they might be branded villains should failure come.  We must galvanize those who are not, for without absolute clarity and commitment, regardless of potential consequence may we find a worthwhile society on the far side.  We must define our vision of a better world and we must do what is necessary to achieve it.  We owe to our forefathers and our children, we owe it to them to try.