Modern-day Heros and the Sympathetic Imagination

“Huh, let it all hang out; if you don’t brothas and sistas, then you won’t know what it’s all about.”

In his classic single “Super Bad” – made famous by the repeated phrase “I got soul!” – James Brown sings these lyrics. But what does having soul have to do with the rest of the aforementioned verse? I felt the words of this soul-music legend corresponded nicely with Dr. King’s message. King urged his audience that African-American freedom could be achieved through passiveness. In his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King stated, “we must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline, we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force” (Bump 122). Gandhi defined his way of non-resistance, satygraha, as a seems of “soul force” (Bump 119). King mentions in his speech the word “righteousness” (122). Though preaching to different audiences years apart, on separate halves of the globe, these men had very similar messages and very similar doctrines. Both followed the path of ahimsa, the principle of noninjury and the sacredness of all living things. Both devoted themselves to a cause and were willing to die for that cause.

So why are figures like Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. remembered today? Countless people throughout history have been assassinated for their beliefs, and countless others have lead resistance movements. I believe that the quality that elevates these men above many others is true hero-status. Anyone can be a martyr or claim to be one. The dictionary defines the word as “a person who is put to death or endures great suffering on behalf of any belief, principle, or cause.” But please – even Muslim fanatics claim martyrdom in contradictory actions. To me the word martyrdom has lost its sacred significance. A true hero, however, one possessing a universal message which withstands the tests of time, is priceless and forever. King and Gandhi both became their causes to better reach and communicate their goals. In the words of W. J. Bate, these men were able to “penetrate the barrier which space [put] between [them and their objects], and by actually entering into the object, so to speak, to secure a momentary but complete identification with it” (Bump 131). They felt for others’ suffering as if it was their own. But equality and freedom were these men’s passions. Even the word Passion’s definition has correlations to Jesus and martyrdom (Bump 125). What made King and Gandhi unique was that they not only professed this incredible truth upon the world, but they themselves developed into that message. Both exhibited through their actions exactly what they preached about. When asked for his message to the world, Gandhi said, “my life is my message” (Bump 119). Maybe it was that quality that made their message so successful and everlasting. Just as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ did not kill his message, the assassinations of King and Gandhi did not halt their movements either. Their deaths were not in vain, eventually the “community of feeling” (Bump 128) that these men envisioned was realized. Their assassinations opened the hearts of the world by “calling forth our compassion, our capacity to suffer with another” (Bump 133). But regardless of how their lives ended, their message lies with their actions and words in life. They transformed themselves into the very message they proclaimed to the world, which I believe to be the ultimate move of the true hero.