The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 3449: Son of Midnight (Forty-Eight)

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

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

"Human society has never had a perfect system. The way humans exist as a species means that they are unable to design and implement a perfect system. If this is considered a known condition, the birth of a hero is almost inevitable."

"Since the system is not perfect, there will definitely be people who can find and fill in the gaps in the system. They promote the progress of the times or society, because they bring a better life to ordinary people, so ordinary people call them heroes."

"You can think of superheroes as heroes with super powers. They are a branch of heroes. Since they are a branch, they are very similar to other beings in this group. They are a supplement to a certain imperfect system."

"So what is the difference between them and traditional heroes? Of course, they have superpowers. In other words, superhero is not an independent word, but a combination of words. They are people with superpowers who find loopholes in imperfect systems."

"And the other question is: What's the difference between a super criminal and a super hero?"

"Obviously, super criminals break the law. Most super criminals have significantly endangered the lives of others. They are evil from both a legal and moral perspective. They are the ones who undermine the system. So even if they have super powers, they are super criminals, not super heroes."

"But if a person has superpowers but has not committed any crime or done anything to make society better, can he be called a superhero?"

"I don't think so. The threshold for being a hero is not that low. We can only say that such people are not super criminals, but we cannot say that they are super heroes."

"It seems that whether or not one uses his or her superpowers to make society a better place is the standard for being a superhero, and the only standard."

“Whether this superhero is in a laboratory promoting technological progress or catching petty criminals on the streets, they can be called superheroes because they make society better.”

Danny nodded. Schiller's explanation was very easy to understand, and he could understand it. But the next question from Schiller was a bit complicated.

"So what should we do if a superhero's actions harm society?"

"Then he's not a superhero," Danny said. "Not only did he fail to make society better, he also harmed other people. He should be considered a super criminal."

"Yes, that's right. People who make this society better are heroes. If you want to be a hero, you have to make this society better. You agree with this, right?"

Danny nodded.

"So what if a superhero wants to make society a better place, but uses the wrong method and harms society? What should we do then?"

Danny began to think, and after a while he said, "Maybe his intention is good, but if it harms others, he can't be called a hero. At least not to the victim."

"That's right. Although his ideas are good, his actions are harmful to society, so he can't be considered a superhero. So is he a super criminal?"

Danny was silent for a moment and then said, "I think maybe it is. After all, his behavior is indeed wrong."

"So if this superhero has been saving people before, and has saved many people, but something went wrong this time, can we deal with him the same way we deal with super criminals?"

Danny shook his head and said, "No. That's too cruel. It's true that he saved a lot of people. We can't treat him as a vicious criminal just because of this mistake."

Then he fell into deep thought, and after a while he said, "Are you trying to tell me that the reason why superheroes are so hesitant and don't take the most efficient way to act is to avoid becoming criminals themselves?"

"But the methods I mentioned before aren't crimes, right? Iron Man can control his robots, and Captain America's influence is not something to be avoided. Should we sacrifice efficiency and take our time just to avoid making mistakes?"

Schiller smiled gently and said, "Don't be impatient, listen to me slowly.

"You might think that the harms in the examples I cited are about super powers getting out of control and killing a lot of people, or running rampant and disrupting the order of social life. But no, these are just the most superficial harms."

Danny turned to look at him.

"The harm that real superheroes should try their best to avoid is destabilization." Schiller folded his hands together and rubbed the joints of one hand with the other.

"The right to life and health is the first natural right of human beings. In simple terms, everyone has the right to live in good health. So what is the second right? I think it is the right to develop oneself."

"If you want to develop yourself, you need the conditions to develop yourself. For example, getting an education, exercising, broadening your horizons, and gaining knowledge are all conditions that can allow a person to develop."

"Society must first ensure the realization of the first human right, which is to allow everyone to survive. On this basis, we must strive to ensure the realization of the second right, which is to allow people to have the above conditions to develop themselves."

"To achieve these conditions, society must remain stable. Schools can carry out normal teaching activities every day, shops can open every day for people to buy what they want, and transportation facilities can operate normally every day for people to go where they want to go."

"And without stability, schools will be closed seven days a week, shops will not dare to open, and transportation facilities will be completely paralyzed, so everyone will have to hide at home. Their mental and physical conditions may also stagnate, which means they will lose the right to develop themselves."

"So what could possibly lead to a loss of stability? The most likely possibility is, of course, a large-scale war with hot weapons, followed by terrorist riots, rampant plagues, poor governance, and so on."

"If there are no major events, then some minor events could also lead to local chaos. And because they are not major events, people are not careful and don't care, so they are more likely to happen again and again, causing stability to be repeatedly broken, and society is still in a state of long-term disorder."

"Schools may not be closed permanently, but they will be closed at least four or five times a month; shops are not closed all the time, but may be closed two or three days a week; transportation facilities may be better or worse, but if you are lucky you can still travel."

"It may seem like there is nothing wrong with this, but in fact, it is also a serious restriction on the right of human beings to develop themselves. Not to mention, when some places in the world are like this, other places are fine."

"The result is that people in some places are severely restricted in their development, while others can develop almost unlimitedly. Society is torn into two halves, and half or even most of the people will have to endure injustice forever."

"Superpowers themselves can easily lead to such trivial incidents. Cases of school tragedies, shopping street attacks, traffic damage, etc. caused by superpowers out of control are not uncommon. Considering the consequences I just mentioned, this must be taken seriously."

"Superheroes should fill gaps in society, not make holes themselves. One superhero may not cause much harm, and ten superheroes may not cause much harm. But from what I know, there are more than 2,000 superheroes in New York. If one person does a small thing, the harm caused is no less than a hot war breaking out in New York."

"To sum up, the efficiency of superheroes is not limited by their abilities or mentality, but by the society's demand for stability. The upper limit of their efficiency is not themselves, but the limit of ordinary people."

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

"It's not just the knives that hit them, the bullets that hit them that hurt them. That's just physical damage. They can't bear the mental damage either."

"The shock caused by unexpected accidents, or the sudden disruption of life habits maintained for many years, is a kind of mental harm to them. It may make them anxious, depressed, or even fall into an inextricable mental distress, unable to integrate into normal social life, and limit their own development."

"In addition to ensuring that they are not physically harmed, superheroes must also do their best to prevent them from being mentally harmed, because both are equally painful."

"Even if it's not for the purpose of protecting their rights to development, superheroes should still do this, because 'allowing weakness' is the core of humanistic care."

"If a group does not provide adequate care and protection for the vulnerable, but instead ignores or eliminates them, then no one will be willing to stand up and sacrifice their own interests to promote the development of society and the times. There will be no heroes, only speculators and criminals, and society will hardly move forward."

"So let's talk about those methods you mentioned. Iron Man can send robots into the Bronx with great fanfare, but what do you make the residents of the Bronx think?"

"Is Iron Man going to invade us? Are the robots going to rebel against humans? Who are the weapons they carry aimed at? Will they beat me to death just because I went out to take out the trash today?"

"It sounds ridiculous, but you can't prevent ordinary people from thinking this way. In other words, what reliable reasons can you give to convince others not to think this way?"

"It's the same with Captain America. Everyone knows how influential he is. When he gives a press conference, people will definitely wonder: Is Hydra coming back? Is their headquarters hidden in the Bronx? Will I run into terrorists when I go out to buy groceries?"

"People will feel panic because of this. They will be worried and afraid, they will not be able to sleep well, they will be trembling when they go out, and they will have such thoughts from time to time when they are studying or working, and they will not be able to concentrate at all. Isn't this harmful to them?"

"My years of experience as a psychologist have taught me that ordinary people rarely experience major disasters in their lives. Most of the things that linger in their minds, entangle in their souls, and make them sit in front of me with painful faces come from these small tribulations."

Danny looked at Schiller in a daze. These words were like a gust of wind that came in through a crack when the window was not closed tightly. The narrower the passage, the more intense it became. After rushing into the brain through the ear canal, it became deafening and dizzying.

Schiller's words and expression made him feel as if his soul was suddenly grabbed by something and sent into the sky. Standing in such a detached perspective like a god, he looked down on all living beings.

When he stood at a high place, all the things he had thought were great became blurry. But there were so many things to see here, and he discovered the laws of operation of those subtle details that he could not see normally, which gave rise to a kind of unprecedented and vast compassion.

Finally, he heard Schiller's faint sigh:

"In human history, there has never been any heroic legend that has been played out all the time. Except for the birds that have already soared into the clouds, after seeing the mountains, rivers, lakes, and the vastness of the world, when every grain of sand chooses to stumble towards its ordinary destination, they still choose to fly over their heads, shielding them from the scorching sun, and becoming the most relaxing and pleasant wind they encounter along the way."