It's definitely not unique. There's a certain sense to it, when you look at human behavior in the whole. There is a natural tendency to admire excellence. Succeeding is admirable. Succeeding in the face of adversity, moreso. It's harder, after all. Stoic persistence has been a staple of hero tales since the dawn of civilization. The Odyssey was written over 2500 years ago and all it is is the story of a man who gets kicked repeatedly but gets back up every time, dusts himself off and keeps moving forward. We, as humans, looooove that sort of thing. It captures the potential nobility of the species. It serves as inspiration.
Decades ago, when I was in the Navy, on down time, I would sometimes read about Medal of Honor recipients. One of my favorites involves a Navy chief. His ship was hit by a torpedo, the engine room was taking on water and the oil floating on the water caught fire. He sent the rest of the engine crew out of the room, because he was in charge and the engine was his responsibility. He kept the engine operating, by himself, until he was overcome by smoke inhalation. He was found, brought up to the top deck and revived. At which point, he immediately went back down to the engine room and ran the engine until he passed out AGAIN from smoke inhalation. He was brought up, revived and went back a third time, running the engine until he died from smoke inhalation. But the ship made it safely to port, saving all hands. I'm sorry, but that's a motherfucking HERO. To do what's right, no matter the personal cost, to keep moving no matter what happens, it's one of the few forms of masculinity that hasn't been deemed toxic yet.
We all want to be heroes. I'm not suggesting, of course, that we all want to die to show off our nobility. It's just that we want others to think well of us. To admire us. So maybe, if nobody has noticed our wounds, we try to subtly point them out. And over time, as the world becomes a safer, more comfortable place, there are less obstacles to visibly overcome. Not to be left out, we exaggerate our hurts. We fluff the mountains we've climbed, like a fisherman stretching the truth of just how big that fish REALLY was. Left unchecked, it spirals into the culture we have today, where everyone agrees with the adversity of everyone else, in the charitable hope that everyone else will agree with their own adversity.
To your later point about right wing fragility, you're correct that it's not a left phenomenon. The right is absolutely guilty too. You give poor examples, however. When you say "ban books" it brings to mind The Jungle or The Catcher in the Rye. Florida isn't banning books in that sense. What they're doing is saying that you cannot have sexually explicit literature in schools. The left likes to frame it as anti-LGBTQ, but it's about not presenting pornography to children. That's not me being hyperbolic. From the book "Gender Queer":
I got a new strap-on harness today. I can’t wait to put it on you. I can’t wait to have your cock in my mouth—I’m going to give you the blowjob of your life. Then I want you inside me.
Could anyone really disagree with the idea that text like that is not appropriate for kids? Rather than talk about the specifics of what books are being removed from schools and why, it has a better impact to say "oh, the Republicans are banning books, the evil, censorious, authoritarian bastards!"
It's definitely not unique. There's a certain sense to it, when you look at human behavior in the whole. There is a natural tendency to admire excellence. Succeeding is admirable. Succeeding in the face of adversity, moreso. It's harder, after all. Stoic persistence has been a staple of hero tales since the dawn of civilization. The Odyssey was written over 2500 years ago and all it is is the story of a man who gets kicked repeatedly but gets back up every time, dusts himself off and keeps moving forward. We, as humans, looooove that sort of thing. It captures the potential nobility of the species. It serves as inspiration.
Decades ago, when I was in the Navy, on down time, I would sometimes read about Medal of Honor recipients. One of my favorites involves a Navy chief. His ship was hit by a torpedo, the engine room was taking on water and the oil floating on the water caught fire. He sent the rest of the engine crew out of the room, because he was in charge and the engine was his responsibility. He kept the engine operating, by himself, until he was overcome by smoke inhalation. He was found, brought up to the top deck and revived. At which point, he immediately went back down to the engine room and ran the engine until he passed out AGAIN from smoke inhalation. He was brought up, revived and went back a third time, running the engine until he died from smoke inhalation. But the ship made it safely to port, saving all hands. I'm sorry, but that's a motherfucking HERO. To do what's right, no matter the personal cost, to keep moving no matter what happens, it's one of the few forms of masculinity that hasn't been deemed toxic yet.
We all want to be heroes. I'm not suggesting, of course, that we all want to die to show off our nobility. It's just that we want others to think well of us. To admire us. So maybe, if nobody has noticed our wounds, we try to subtly point them out. And over time, as the world becomes a safer, more comfortable place, there are less obstacles to visibly overcome. Not to be left out, we exaggerate our hurts. We fluff the mountains we've climbed, like a fisherman stretching the truth of just how big that fish REALLY was. Left unchecked, it spirals into the culture we have today, where everyone agrees with the adversity of everyone else, in the charitable hope that everyone else will agree with their own adversity.
To your later point about right wing fragility, you're correct that it's not a left phenomenon. The right is absolutely guilty too. You give poor examples, however. When you say "ban books" it brings to mind The Jungle or The Catcher in the Rye. Florida isn't banning books in that sense. What they're doing is saying that you cannot have sexually explicit literature in schools. The left likes to frame it as anti-LGBTQ, but it's about not presenting pornography to children. That's not me being hyperbolic. From the book "Gender Queer":
I got a new strap-on harness today. I can’t wait to put it on you. I can’t wait to have your cock in my mouth—I’m going to give you the blowjob of your life. Then I want you inside me.
Could anyone really disagree with the idea that text like that is not appropriate for kids? Rather than talk about the specifics of what books are being removed from schools and why, it has a better impact to say "oh, the Republicans are banning books, the evil, censorious, authoritarian bastards!"
Great comments, Michael.