U.N. Recruits Spiderman

On Friday, January 4, 2008, the BBC News web site ran a story titled "Can Spiderman Help UN Beat Evil?" Without clicking the link to the story behind this headline, I thought to myself "a fictitious character and an organization based on wishful thinking should be a perfect match in the quest to beat the unbeatable." When I read the article, I discovered that it didn't address the question posed in the headline at all. The gist of the story was that the United Nations and Marvel Comics were collaborating in a public relations campaign "to inform children about UN humanitarian causes." As a firm believer in the principles upon which the UN was founded, I am in complete agreement with the idea of putting decades of inaction and/or impotence in the face of evil behind us, and attempting to re-inspire belief in the possibility of peace and humanitarianism in the minds of the young. But, regardless of the merits (or lack thereof) of this UN strategy to polish its image in the eyes of our future citizens, and in spite of my cynicism in regard to the beat-ability of evil, the burning question remained. Can Spiderman help beat evil at least in some measure?

The answer, of course, is a resounding yes. I believe that even with my rather shaky recollection of two Spiderman movies I can illustrate why the answer is yes by showing what Spiderman could bring to the UN-namely, the ability to recognize evil and the willingness to set aside self-interest and take action to thwart evil when the need arises.

We know that Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, often agonizes over the difference between right and wrong, but when lives are at stake he never hesitates to take action. I'm thinking specifically of the night the Green Goblin simultaneously dropped Mary Jane and a cable car full of children from the top of a tall building, challenging Spidey to choose which one to save. I don't recall exactly how Spiderman managed to beat the odds and save both, but his subsequent treatment of the Goblin made it abundantly clear that he recognized the Goblin's behavior as evil and not to be tolerated. Conversely, when eye-witness reports of mass murder emanate from places like Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, Burundi, Bosnia, Darfur, and others, the UN has to debate the accuracy of those reports while awaiting verifiable body counts that reach some undefined threshold in order to establish that something evil is underway. Thus, UN intervention, if it occurs at all, is usually delayed until time to count the bodies and try to feed the survivors.

The Preface to Samantha Power's book "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide" provides a great overview of the political ambitions and national interests that help create this inability on the part of the UN to recognize and act against evil. Spiderman can set the right example for the UN with regard to selflessness as well.

Self-sacrifice is a recurring theme in the Spiderman movies. Peter Parker accepts self-abasement, ridicule, and even the ire of his girlfriend in order to protect his ability to fight evil. On the other hand, at the United Nations, national self-interest and the geo-political repercussions of interfering with the murderous intent of another sovereign nation often lead to the caviling noted in the previous paragraph. Trade might be interrupted, profit diminished, and strategic alliances (no matter how odious or onerous) might be put in jeopardy by proactive measures taken to stop nations from waging war or exterminating some portion of their population. One-time U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing put the principle at work here into words as follows: "The essence of sovereignty [is] the absence of responsibility" (Power 14). Lansing was arguing against holding The Young Turks responsible for the Armenian Genocide during World War I, but the basic premise of non-intervention holds to this day. In the absence of any truly innocent governments, who is going to step up and set a precedent for demanding responsibility? Such a thing would require an admission of past mistakes as well as a firm resolve to do better in the future before the nations of the world can come together and empower the UN to be the force for good its founders visualized.

Clearly, as long as the UN recruits Spiderman's principles along with his symbolism and appeal to comic book aficionados, wishful thinking could creep closer to reality, and the quest to beat the unbeatable might enjoy a better win/loss record than we have now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7172016.stm

Power, Samantha. "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide." New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2003.