On religion and mutants, good and evil, peace and war…
God is an omnipotent entity unmatched by any other. But from the moment the devil enters the picture, the Lord ceases to be almighty and is relegated to just another antagonized and competing force.
This is important when considering Christianity, Islam and Judaism (monotheistic religions), where Satan features prominent. The Outcast’s invention was the worst thing God’s acolytes could have done for Him, and for themselves. They strengthened their grip over people on Earth, but they did it at the exorbitant price of dis-empowering their Lord.
Why mention this? Because when two opposing forces are pitched against each other on the same plane and dimension, none of them can claim moral or divine superiority. They become parts of the formula, the interaction of which propels a never-ending process of development.
Nor can either of them be omnipotent. As long as they face a challenge, they’re prone to failure and are under constant scrutiny by those involved in their confrontation. Only when one of them prevails can its proponents proclaim its godly status. But that can only happen after one of the two decisively dominates the other, be it through peaceful or violent means. Calling the game in advance is nothing more than having one party make its case against the other.
Let me tie this in with a piece I recently wrote on the limits of humanity and the advent of the meta-human. In that piece I proposed that humanity is the problem, not the solution. The world will advance once we leave behind what has defined us all these years – the instincts and impulses that have led us to the wars and genocide, prejudice and discrimination, irrational behavior, shortsighted policy and environmental catastrophe we are duly committing – and embrace a new state of being. Break boundaries, far and wide, to claim a new New World, in both outer space and inner.
To present this new state of being, I alluded to the Freaks and Mutants our pop culture has been raving on about over the past seventy years, heroes and antiheroes alike. Their groundbreaking powers seize our imagination, and we glorify them in our art and entertainment unashamedly. So let us become them, I urged, to approximate, perhaps even achieve, the breakthrough they stand for.
One of the franchises that has made Mutants so popular is X-Men. It has sold millions of comic books and launched a successful movie franchise, the latest instalment of which was X-Men: First Class, the prequel to other X-Men movies. How it all began.
This is the story of the two leaders of the Mutant movement, Professor X and Magneto, or Charles and Erik, as they were known when they were young. We get to see how they grew up together, fighting for the mutant cause against the admirable but volatile and belligerent humanity, and how they gradually took separate paths.
Erik, on the one hand, believes that humanity will never welcome mutants, so he chooses to fight them until his kind prevails by force. Charles shares Erik’s fears, but chooses to pursue the option of peace, striving to build bridges between humanity and mutants.
When I was young, I identified with Charles (Professor X). He held the moral high ground, and his way was the better one. But as the years passed, I came to realize that Professor X’s view was flawed, and that Erik (Magneto) had a point. Erik saw the world for what it was and acted on it, claiming that for humans and mutants to coexist i.e. for order of the lasting and functional kind to be achieved, either
- both sides had to reach a mutual agreement, or
- one of them had to prevail through peaceful or violent means.
Since humanity is systematically belligerent, peace was (is) not an option, and never will be, if we examine history.
Magneto’s realism began to make sense.
At the same time, I also realized that without Professor X, Magneto was out of control. His harsh realism was anything but grounded, and he’d easily lose the plot and spiral out of control. Without Charles’ grace and compassion to rein him in, he was untempered and foul, vicious and self-defeating.
Ditto for Professor X. His gracious and compassionate perspective hinged on Magneto’s brute realism. Without Magneto, the mutants were constantly exposed, at risk of falling victims to the belligerent side of humanity. At best, they would all end up dead. Worse yet, they could become humanity’s slaves, pets, or lapdogs.
Like I said, two opposing forces that are parts of the greater formula, the function of which propels a never-ending process of development.
The question is, where are we, each of us, in this process and what are we prepared to do about it? How do we defend what we believe in? What is our position in the equation? We each have a role, after all, whether we like it or not, be it noble, graceful, dark, or unenviable. The point is to assume it with conviction and see it through.
Bottom line, this process will play out with our involvement or without it. The point is to make a choice and follow it with a decisive move that will have an impact, be it slight or immense. Choose our course of action wisely so that we may emerge victorious. Losers tell no tales and make no decisions. Those privileges are reserved for the victors.
This article was originally published in Urban Times