"Syndrome" Syndrome: or the Fallacy of "Special"

[pawsplay]

So, in my view, settling for mediocrity is bad. However, simply telling people that they're special isn't a good idea, either. To me, that's only half the job. The other half is finding out what their talents (or at least, their comparative advantages) are, and helping them to become useful people who actually have a reason to feel at least slightly special.

Exactly. Anyone in Bob's office could have done what he did for the customers, but they didn't have the conviction to do so.

 

[Byronic]

The funny thing is that when I read that quote on a thread over here earlier, I thought he meant retarded people.

 

[Wormwood]

Huh? In the movie, superheroes get driven underground by an unappreciative, sheep-like public that can't handle the fact that some people are special.

Essentially, it's Ayn Rand in tights.

Fantastic movie, however. In spite of itself.

 

[Scribble]

The message of The Increadables is that even if an author has a message in his head, chances are other people will get another message which is probably equally as valid.

Either that or americans like popcron and cartoons.

 

[Intense_Interest]

I think the message of the movie is that everyone is special, and that what makes people exceptional is the courage to use their gifts to their fullest and be honest about their frailties.

Dude, I was talking about the movie in the context of the application to 4E. I really don't see the point to a tangent discussion of the "message" of the movie as a whole; otherwise, I would have put it in Off-Topic.

 

[Wormwood]

Dude, I was talking about the movie in the context of the application to 4E. I really don't see the point to a tangent discussion of the "message" of the movie as a whole; otherwise, I would have put it in Off-Topic.

Duly noted.

Your original point, that people mistakenly use the quote as a bludgeon against 4e, is perfectly valid.

 

[Set]

I thought that the 'everyone is special, and therefore no one is' was the same point made in Harrison Bergeron.

 

[Thunderfoot]

My view is it's saying that it's okay to have superior abilities, but that does not give you superior worth as a human being. Probably the most heroic thing Bob does in the movie is help people with insurance claims, a noble calling which earns him nothing but misery and subjection to hatred. As a superhero, he is in his element. Being a nobody was hard but it didn't bend his moral resolve.

Great view, but totally off base. The line of Syndrome was the actual stabbing point for the writers. Not everyone is special, those that are have responsibilities to ensure that they aren't above the law. Like the old Spiderman line "With great power comes great responsibility." That was their guideline.

 

[pawsplay]

Great view, but totally off base. The line of Syndrome was the actual stabbing point for the writers. Not everyone is special, those that are have responsibilities to ensure that they aren't above the law. Like the old Spiderman line "With great power comes great responsibility." That was their guideline.

They used an immature, psychotic loser to voice their moral agenda? Ooookay.

 

[pawsplay]

Essentially, it's Ayn Rand in tights.

Fantastic movie, however. In spite of itself.

Really? I thought it was more Kantian: "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end."