So Few Heroes Left

Day 2,207, 16:05 • Published in USA USA • by PigInZen

I haven't written an article in so very long that it seems... odd... to be doing so now. I haven't felt the urge nor the need to comment on goings-on in-game; the fascination and rapture that held my interest so very long ago fled and I doubt it will be coming back. No, this article is about a personal reflection and my little reaction to the real-life news of the day. Which means it might not stick around. So be it, I understand how this works.

Much of my ennui towards eRepublik is reflected, somewhat, in my real life. As an idealistic young man growing up in the 1980s momentous changes and events surrounded me. As a new citizen in eRepublik in 2009, I felt much the same: there was a purpose (manufactured, be it as it may) and a drive to joining and partaking in the game. This idealism was well-reflected in my approach to the game and my fellow eUS citizens and was very brutally crushed during my brief stint as PotUS. Much as in real life, where idealism can become brutally crushed by the daily demands of life.

Part of my real-life idealism in the 1980s was centered around the perceived injustices of the world. Certainly South Africa was among them. To me it reflected the journey of the United States – here was a country in which the worst of our laws, the worst of our prejudices were reflected in the news of the day. Apartheid to me was the Jim Crow society of my day except in a foreign country. Being that my childhood was as far removed from prejudice and separation as I am now removed from my childhood, I found it abhorrent to everything my idealistic self believed. Equality, Fraternity, Liberty.

Because of this I believed the personal sacrifice of Nelson Mandela to be an act of societal heroism borne out of a dedication to the idealism that there can be a better world, a better society, a better life for us. I still believe this, despite the efforts of many at the time to brand Mandela and the ANC as communists or terrorists. In 1987 Margaret Thatcher stated that "The ANC is a typical terrorist organisation ... Anyone who thinks it is going to run the government in South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo land."

What was most significant to me, however, was what happened after the South African elections in 1994, which the ANC and Mandela won with almost 63% of the vote. I remember hearing statements at the time expressing fear that the black African populace would ruin the country and exact retribution for decades and centuries of oppression. One need look no further than South Africa's neighbor Zimbabwe for an example of this. To the contrary, Mandela charted a course of national reconciliation.

So very few real heroes remain, at least not on the scale of Nelson Mandela. There are certainly many who sacrificed on the battlefield or lead lives dedicated to service, such as Medal of Honor winners Dakota Meyer and William Swenson in Afghanistan, or those in organizations such as Doctors without Borders. Today the world lost a hero. I too, lost a personal hero. Thank you, Nelson Mandela, for your sacrifice and dedication to making the world a better place. Real life South Africans, here is one adopted Hoosier who will be mourning with you.