Tuesday 22 November 2011

"If I was a superhero who could fly and be invisible, that would be the best..."

Ah yes, superheroes. The subject of many children's, and indeed some adult's dreams. At some stage in our long or short lives, each one of us has had this discussion with ourselves: "if I had a superpower, what would it be?" and it is this question which shall be the topic for today's blog.

Although each of us are unique, the primary basis of the decision can be split into three main categories: domestic uses and enjoyment, the ability to do good, and the ability to do evil. I sincerely hope that nobody reading this would base their decision around the latter, but the choice between the first two options is where most of us will struggle. Obviously the correct approach would be to instantly go for the selfless route towards heroism, throwing caution to the wind and dedicating one's life to the greater good. Not to mention sacrificing one's dignity and donning an unflatteringly tight costume and forgetting what order to put on your underwear. However, this is only an ideal and for many of us (myself included), the lure of a supernatural ability is far too tempting to not focus even slightly of the personal benefits that might come from it. 

When having this discussion with a certain someone (see, I don't just ramble, I do research for these posts too!), they mentioned how mind reading would be their preferred power. Although I cannot say that this gift would not be useful on some occasions, in fact, I can think of a few specific situations when I would have given anything for it, I am not so keen on it. Not only would it be highly invasive to enter the private thought space of another person (I strongly pity anybody who enters mine), but you might discover things that you never wanted to uncover. For me, ignorance is bliss. Furthermore, it does not cover the main area that a superhero needs to address: transportation. There is no use having the ability to stop a crime when you will have to use the infamously unreliable London public transport system to make your way there. Waiting in brightly coloured tights for several hours for a bus that is meant to come every 12 minutes isn't exactly the material for a blockbuster superhero film.  

As some of you may have picked up (if you are as dedicated to watching Friends as me), the title is hand picked from many of the great lines of Chandler Muriel Bing. If we temporarily ignore his greed at picking two powers, his logic seems well thought through. He too has deduced the issue of transportation and addressed it by wishing for flight, and that too would be the power I would pick. The feeling of pure freedom, the ability to escape from earth's gravitational pull and move in whichever way your heart desires; I can't see why any other option would be considered, let alone why mind reading would ever enter into the equation.

Right, I think that pretty much concludes the longest and most thought through hypothetical debate that I have ever had, so I guess I should be going now. Until the next time, up up and away! 

3 comments:

capabilitybrown said...

Oh, so being able to fly isn't something everyone can do? Golly, that must mean Im a superhero. Wow, whoever knew?

Bad Wolf said...

I think that teleportation would address the transportation issue even better then flying. With flying you have to put up with drawing a lot of attention to yourself so something you could only really use whilst being your superhero persona. Teleportation on the other hand you can use as your civilian self and super self.

Alon Nachshen said...

I did consider teleportation, and you are undoubtedly right that it would be a lot more convenient, but to me, flying is just that little bit more fun and special!

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