Why I am not a fan of Captain America

Monday, October 31. 2011

Why I am not a fan of Captain America

My son as Captain America

My son is dressing as Captain America this year for Halloween. Despite the fact that he looks fantastic with his homemade shield, I am not too crazy about it. Why? Is it because I am a closet America-hater that despises all things patriotic? No. It's because I am a total buzz kill that cannot get past Captain America's transhumanist underpinnings.

And here I go ruining an awesome super hero for Catholic parents and their sons everywhere. Captain America is the only super hero that I know where the enhancements are a choice. The Hulk and Spiderman were accidents. The X Men were born that way and Superman is from another planet. The Green Lantern has a ring that he can take on and off, so his enhancements aren't permanent. But everyday American Steve Rodgers was experimented on to make a better soldier to help win a war. He was healthy and underwent potentially fatal procedures to make him Captain America. Totally unethical.

In fact I had to sit my son down and explain to him that even though he loves Captain America, experimenting and enhancing a perfectly normal, albeit small, human being is wrong, no matter how well-intentioned the goal. The Catholic Church is clear that any human engineering has to have a therapeutic purpose. Tinkering with humans to enhance an otherwise healthy person is totally unethical.

On a broader level, this is how I believe transhumanism will get a foothold in society: with the military permanently enhancing its soldiers in an increasingly hostile world. Unfortunately, Captain America glorifies a dubious practice and prays on our patriotism to make us feel good about it.

I am sure I have lost many a reader, but I have to call em like I see em!

Posted by Rebecca Taylor in Transhumanism at 13:22 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

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Definitely agree with what you're saying... Curious to hear what your opinion is on supplements that bodybuilders take. I take creatine and protein shakes. I think God likes me just the way I am, but I am a gym junkie and I like to do better at the gym, so I do take those 2 things. I think some people can go over the top with them, but I think so long as you have the mindset that you're a creation of God and that physical appearance isn't the most important thing in the world, then taking them to help out can be okay.

#1 James on 2011-10-31 16:30 (Reply)

If you are working out hard you need those supplements to recover more quickly. Alone, they certainly won't make you super-human or "posthuman" as the transhumanists would say.

Metabolic steroids are a whole other story and we are all aware of the devastating side effects of performance enhancing drugs.

#1.1 Rebecca Taylor on 2011-10-31 17:15 (Reply)

You certainly haven't lost this reader! I'm glad you point it out - it's certainly a seemingly innocent experiment gone right ... and for the GREATER GOOD! Nonetheless, I would hope everyone would be appalled if it were to happen in real life.

#2 John (Homepage) on 2011-10-31 20:03 (Reply)

Are you baiting me?

One philosophical distinction (although not a practical one) is that Cap went through his enhancements so that he could engage in a life of greater service and sacrifice for others, whereas every piece of transhumanist philosophy I've read is essentially self-centered and self-aggrandizing. All the same, if this kind of technology gets to our military, I'm voting against it.

#3 M. Swaim on 2011-11-01 03:40 (Reply)

That is true, but I think boys all over the country are thinking that they too could become a hero by joining the military and becoming enhanced for the greater good. Not ideal.

I want to love Cap, I do, but I just can't.

#3.1 Rebecca Taylor on 2011-11-01 10:53 (Reply)

You haven't lost me!

#4 christine on 2011-11-01 13:07 (Reply)

You have definitely lost me.
Captain America was enhanced to be a super soldier for the better doing of others. People use treatments to look like Captain America because they think they would look like them.
I know that everybody has their own opinion.
You are entitled to yours, and I mine.

#5 Sam on 2012-06-12 20:03 (Reply)

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