Most superheroes go around risking life and limb to save people they don't know from immense dangers. But does that singular defining trait among all superheroes make them all fall into one singular ideology? You've no doubt heard political pundits say things like "Obama's a socialist" or "He's really more of a Libertarian", but do you know what those ideologies mean? Do they apply to superheroes? Are all Superheroes Socialists? Or Maybe Liberals? Or maybe there's no single answer. After all, there are heroes who have significant nationalist ideologies as part of their beliefs. So in this series of articles I'm going to look into an ideology, summarizing it, and commenting on whether or not it applies to the idea of superheroes and maybe some specific superheroes, if I find any that apply. The ideologies I'll be looking at over the next few weeks are: Socialism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Libertarianism, Utilitarianism, and Authoritarianism.
In this article, are Superheroes Conservative?
What is Conservatism?
(Summarized from Wikipedia)
Conservatism, also known as traditionalism and Tory-ism, is a political and social philosophy that promotes traditional institutions and supports with as minimal and gradual change in society as possible. Some conservatives wish to keep things as they are, while others oppose all modernism and seek to return to "the way things were". The term is generally associated with right-wing politics and can be used to describe a range of viewpoints based upon what people view as "traditional", which may lead to conflict between conservatives.
Conservatism became mainstream in France and Britain in opposition to the American, French and other Revolutions of the 18th and 19th century, seeing major support from royalists in Europe who believed sovereigns governed by divine right, and frequently opposed sovereignty derived from the people, the authority of parliament and freedom of religion.
As most conservatism in the United States was rooted in the conservation of rights and liberties, most European conservatives do not consider American conservatism genuine but a variation of Liberalism. American conservatism generally consists of "respecting tradition, support of republicanism, following the rules of law and Christianity, and defending Western civilization from the challenges of modernist culture and totalitarian governments". American conservatism has a history of competing ideologies and being marked by internal tensions. As such, American conservatives can be split into four factions, Economic conservatives, Social conservatives, Paleoconservative and Neoconservatives.
Economic, or Fiscal conservatives and libertarians favor small government (where government minimizes it's activities and typically has laissez-faire policies, the only political body that has achieved this is Hong Kong), balanced budgets, low taxes, limited regulation, and free enterprise.
Social conservatives see traditional social values as threatened by secularism (the separation of Church and State); they tend to support things like school prayer and oppose things like abortion and the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Paleoconservatives stress tradition, distributism, limited government, civil society, anti-colonialism, anti-corporatism and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. They are most known for standing in opposition to multiculturalism, and press for restrictions on immigration and minimizing affirmative action, foreign aid and military intervention and abolishing social welfare and social democracy. Paleoconservatives have their origins in Cold War anticommunism, and they often see themselves as the "legitimate heirs to the American conservative tradition".
Neoconservatives want to expand American ideals throughout the world, and in addition to showing support for paleoconservatism and social conservatism ideologies, support military interventionism, nationalism, and a qualified endorsement of free markets.
Since the 1950s there have been attempts to bring the various strands of conservatism together, especially during the Cold War. Conservatives were largely solidified in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan in what became known as the "Reagan Era". Most conservatives typically oppose abortion, gun control, gay marriage, environmentalism and world governmental bodies while advocating personnel self-reliance, strong law and order policies, long jail terms for repeat offenders, the use of military power, the promotion of democracy, prayer in school, and support for Israel.
Are Superheroes Conservative?
That question is a bit tricky. Under the international definition of minimizing change in society you could argue that most superheroes are conservatives in that they generally preserve the status quo, but that's probably not really in line with the ideology.
Under American Conservatism, I don't think there are that many conservative superheroes, at least not in the mainstream. Some heroes, like Batman and Spider-Man, clearly are not conservatives, while Captain America and Superman have some conservative values, although they are by no means strong conservatives.
There are a few strongly conservative superheroes, but they were designed with the idea of being conservative first and superheroes second with the intention of propagating conservative values.
Also, given that most superheroes are futurists or future minded, especially given all the science fiction references in modern superhero comics, I'd be hard pressed to call superheroes conservative.
Okay, so that's a solid step forward. Join us Wednesday when we start talking about Education!
~James
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