Superman and Philosophy
Dialectics, Dialethetics, and Bizarro
Lex Luthor and Superman are fighting, once again. Deep underground, under LexCorp tower, Lex Luthor unveils his newest plot. He explains between blows that the folly of Superman is that he presents too pristine an image to humanity, that as an alien he has no right to confer his morality on the citizens of Metropolis. Superman upholds a strict moral code, but the average man cannot uphold such a code but is compelled to do so because of the presence of Superman. So Luthor has made a laser beam, to make man better than his own humanity, like Superman mockingly is, and democratize Superman’s powers. Luthor plans to beam the whole city with this laser and Superman vows to stop him.
Luthor gains the upper hand and uses this opportunity to question Superman’s motives. He chides Superman for not allowing others to take risks in bettering themselves and accepting the consequences of their own actions. He tries to convince Superman the payoff of a machine that makes humanity better is worth the risk and blindly fighting technological progress leading to the betterment of humanity goes against everything Superman says he stands for.
And in a moment, Superman agrees. He tells Luthor, let me be the test then. Turn the laser on me, and if there is a better version of me, he will agree to Luthor’s plan. And if not, the answer is self-evident.
Luthor grumbles “Ever the martyr” and turns the laser on Superman.
There is a lot of contention as to what dialectics actually is, but for the purposes of this excursion, I will use dialectics as referring to a form of argument that follow thesis-antithesis-synthesis. Some say this is attributed to the philosopher Hegel, others say it is misattributed to him. Still others claim what I am about to present is not actually dialectics. Make of it what you will.
The idea is that we begin with an argument, which we will call a thesis. What will inevitably form is an attempt to discredit this argument and contradict it in some turn, which we will call the antithesis. What must arise is a reconciliation of the thesis and the antithesis and the marriage of these arguments or the compromise of thesis arguments is called the synthesis.
Supposedly, Karl Marx applied this dialectics to the material world and in particular to history and whole systems. I’m not partial to this way of thinking at all, but it’s a useful starting point if we want to discuss a new ideology for a new age.
Bizarro splits out from Superman and immediately attacks him. Bizarro and Superman fight while Luthor looks at his laser wondering what went wrong. But something strange happens.
Midway through fighting, Bizarro lets out an unearthly scream. He convulses and pulses, face twisting in horror. Suddenly, his insides flip inside out. His heart beats outside him, lungs exposed, eyes lidless and wide. A muffled, horrified scream echoes and then, using his super speed, Bizarro escapes the basement in an adrenaline-fueled escape.
Superman tries to stop him, but realizes that Bizarro is already gone. Before Luthor can make a move, Superman grabs the laser and flies out of the wreckage.
Sometime later, Superman is seen conversing with Professor Emil Hamilton in between shots of the news, showing great social unrest. Wealth inequality and apprehension about the rapid pace of automation, driven in part by LexCorp, dominate the airwaves. The big fear is how to usher in Total Automation and what the role of humanity will be in this new era. And where will the energy come for this brave new world? Superman knows super-strength has no place in this sort of discussion. He can’t arrest anyone for having an opinion. He asks Hamilton to turn off the news so he can concentrate.
Hamilton complies and explains the laser again. He tells Superman that the laser created a version of Superman to negate his evil attributes, but instead negates all of his attributes. But he says this itself is a problem, because there are infinite ways to negate something. Even a direct negation is related to the original. If there is one way to be right, there are a thousand ways to be wrong.
That’s why Bizarro turned inside-out. If Superman’s insides are inside, then Bizarro’s must be outside. But, Hamilton goes on, it gets worse. Because it appears Bizarro will continue to cycle through ways to oppose Superman’s existence until he becomes composed of antimatter. And if only a gram is as powerful as a nuclear bomb, Superman’s weight of antimatter might decimate life on earth as we know it.
Hamilton tells Superman, the faster you find Bizarro, the better. Bizarro is a ticking time-bomb.
If dialectics is the antiquated way to view history, an antiquated tool for analysis, what would be a newer way? The new kid on the block might be Dialethetics. This is a much more complex and difficult method of discourse, so bear with me. Consider the following statements:
If you attempt to follow the logic of the above statements, you will see that you will loop in between the two statements forever. This is actually somewhat what happens in some computer bugs. The computer finds itself switching between two statements in a constant loop. A more concise way to show this paradox might be:
“I am always lying” said the liar.
Was the liar lying when he said he was lying? If he was, then he told the truth. So he can’t always be lying, right? But then he’s not a liar…
These mind-bending statements rely on what we call self-reference. They seem to fall apart because they refer to themselves. The study of statements that are simultaneously true and false is referred to as dialethetics. Here, thesis and antithesis are one and the same, both at the same time.
Superman is out in search of Bizarro. He flies over protests against automation and sees overdose, crumbling infrastructure, and abandoned factories. No hope anywhere it seems. He talks on the streets as Clark Kent, talking with waitresses, nurses, rideshare-drivers some of who point him in the direction of Bizarro but always with differing descriptions. Sometimes he’s black. Sometimes he’s a she. Sometimes he speaks English in a butchered grammar and says the opposite of what he means. Sometimes he speaks cogently, but backmasked.
And none of them seem to care. Not the teachers, not the factory workers. No-one. Because they all have children, and mortgages, and car payments. No time to worry about Superman’s latest supervillain. Clark attempts to explain the gravity of the situation, but the people don’t care. Their world is already ending. The world is nearing Total Automation. The only question left is who will power it, and what control will they exert?
Superman finally finds Bizarro in Antarctic (because of course, the Fortress of Solitude is in the arctic). The “Free-Range of Community” glows an insidious orange. Superman makes his way through, carefully, ready to do battle with a potentially nuclear Bizarro. Armed with Luthor’s Laser, he opens the door to reveal…
There isn’t really an easy introduction to dialethetics that I know about. I first was exposed via Godel’s incompleteness theorem in my calculus class. The book Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid discusses how self-reference is core of self-awareness and uses paradoxes like the ones I discussed to illustrate the point. Hofstadter (author of the Eternal Golden Braid book) goes further though by showing how intelligence and self-awareness are connected and how intelligence might emerge in a complex system, be it an ant colony or a neural network. What if we applied the principles of dialethetics to history or to a vast system like capitalism or socialism?
Marx applied the thesis-antithesis-synthesis model to show that captialism-socialism-communism might emerge from history. The crisis from the incompatible systems of socialism and capitalism would result in communism and the makings for a crisis were evident in his time with rapid industrialization and deep, quick changes to society.
The makings of a crisis are evident in our time too, I believe, but as I mentioned I hold little faith in dialectics. But dialethetics might offer a similar insight to a new “-ism” that dialectics offered to leftist thought in the advent of socialism.
Clark Kent. Not a Bizarro-Clark Kent, but the same Clark Kent Superman professes to the world. Superman asks what’s going on. Clark explains that Superman was his own opposite the entire time. That while Superman is near god to most humans, Clark Kent is the most forgettable every-day human imaginable. A man who grew up in humble beginnings, who pines for the girl at work, who loves his parents. The story of hundreds of thousands of people across the world. While Superman can imperviously alter any situation to his will, Clark Kent must simply observe and occasionally express sympathy for the problems he sees his fellow man endure. Man is noble, but ultimately individually powerless.
Clark (Bizarro) tells Superman that true negation is to unleash his power unto the world, let everyone use the growing antimatter he feels himself convulsing towards. He chides Superman, telling him that Superman does not believe enough in humanity to let them make their own choices. Superman is reminded of his conversation with Luthor and relents. Clark (Bizarro), steps into a hob-cobbled contraption that he claims will reroute the energy of the antimatter explosion to most major power grids. But if it fails, Superman will have to contain the explosion with Luthor’s Laser and send Bizarro back to non-existence.
It seems to begin fine, but as the reaction grows in intensity it becomes evident that the contraption will not hold. Clark Kent morphs once more to Bizarro, who compels Superman to “not shoot me.” Superman aims and fires. As the laser consumes and evaporates the contraption, Bizarro waves and says “Hello old world, goodbye new world.”
***
A crowd has gathered and it looks like a protest at first glance. A speck in the distance grows and slowly comes into view. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s not Superman. It’s not even Clark Kent. It’s Kal-El. He lands to the cheers of hundreds of people, and waves graciously to everyone. They all seem happy, well-fed and content.
He walks up to a building, amidst cheers, and accepts a pair of gloves from a robotic helper. He puts on these gloves and enters the building, closing the door to the cheers and festivities.
In the building is a long shaft and crank. Kal-El makes a notch on a tallied-up wall and steps up to the crank. He starts to fly, holding onto the crank and turning the shaft. Battery levels start increasing and robots around the world start lighting up. Kal-El has found his place.
Day 781.
Inspired by Saturday Morning breakfast Cereal’s comic, found here. Check it out!