Heroes or Anti-heroes: Where Have All the Good Guys Gone?
From my earliest days of watching Westerns, sci-fi shows, and family sitcoms, I was inspired by heroes who stepped up for the underdog, brought the bullies down, put criminals to justice, and defended the innocent.
Those lessons came from a generation of men and women who had fought World War II alongside America’s allies, then came home to write, produce, act, make music, and give us moral plays. Many of them had been reluctant heroes in real life, and they hoped to raise generations that treated one another well, fought for the right things, and still believed in tomorrow.
As the years went on and those legendary creators stepped off their stages, much of what was made for our entertainment turned darker. Antiheroes became a staple. People doing bad things became the main characters, and too often the writers and directors asked us to admire them. The old moral play was turned upside down.
Clear-cut good winning over evil became, well, less evil winning over more evil—and we were told the less-evil person was a hero worth looking up to.
That shift, along with similar changes in popular songs, helped erode the moral lessons Baby Boomers and Generation X were weaned on. With each new generation, writers, directors, actors, and songwriters have reflected a slightly different idea of what is good, what is bad, who is a hero, and who is evil.
People talk about a generation gap. I believe this is one of the few periods in American history when four generations—Baby Boomers through Generation Z—have occupied the same country with different moral compasses at their center.
Many of our founders said this country would succeed only if a moral, largely Christian people upheld the principles in our founding documents. As we move further from a shared sense of right and wrong, it becomes harder to keep the country and its future stable, and harder to find leaders in every field who look out for all of us.
What will the future hold for those of us raised on Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Captain Kirk, and the fathers and mothers of The Andy Griffith Show, Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver?
I fear a measure of disappointment. We now watch people raised on antiheroes—The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and that earlier 1970s turn toward Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry and Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey in Death Wish—alongside sitcom parents more interested in themselves while the children run the house, rather than being trained up in a positive way.
Will we ever go back to what it was? No. Are there still chances for redeeming lessons in television, film, and music? I think so. In every generation there are still people inspired by the good. They can be lights among their peers, and that may make the long-term difference.
Are you one of them? Can you inspire heroes rather than antiheroes? Can you write music that teaches something worth keeping? Maybe it is time to step up. Maybe the Greatest Generation did leave a lasting mark—passed down in their creativity and in everyday heroism.
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