DROWNING

People need Ordering Principles, 

and Chaos otherwise beckons.

- Peterson

I hate it when They drown me....

— Buffy, The Vampire Slayer

LUTHOR :

Krrrrrryptonite..!!

You're asking yourself, "How?"

Didn't your dad ever teach you to look before you leap?

Crystals. They're amazing, aren't they?

They inherit The Traits of The Minerals around them... 

kind of like — A Son 

inheriting The Traits 

of His FATHER !

Look buddy, we sent you there 

to die, but ya' had to come back . . . 

Oh yeah. All those photos? 

Those stories about 

Krypton still existing? 

It was me. 

And him.

Lex looks toward Stanford. 

Thankfully, 

The Press doesn't check Facts like they used to.

 

Hey,  you took away five years of my life. 

I just returned the favor.

SUPERMAN :

I'm still Superman!

SUPERMAN REVENGE SQUAD :

Get up! Come on!

Now, fly.

•STABS HIM WITH A KRYPTONITE SHIV AND SNAPS OFF THE BLADE•

LUTHOR:

So long, Superman.

“We require RULES, STANDARDS, VALUES 

— alone AND together. 

We’re pack animals, 

Beasts of burden. 

We must Bear a Load, 

to justify our miserable existence. 

We require Routine and Tradition. 

That’s Order. 

Order can become excessive, 

and that’s Not Good, 

But Chaos can swamp us, so we drown — 

and that is also Not Good. 

We need to stay on 

The Straight and Narrow path. 

[I seek,] Therefore [to] 

Provide A Guide to Being There. 

“There” is The Dividing Line 

between Order and Chaos. 

That’s where we are simultaneously 
Stable ENOUGH, 

Exploring ENOUGH, 

Transforming ENOUGH, 

Repairing ENOUGH, 

and 

Cooperating ENOUGH. 

It’s there we find The Meaning that justifies 
Life and its inevitable Suffering. 

Perhaps, if we lived •properly•, we would be able to tolerate the weight of our own self-consciousness. 

Perhaps, if we lived •properly•, we could withstand the knowledge of our own fragility and mortality, without the sense of aggrieved victimhood that produces, first, 

Resentment, then Envy, 

and then 

The Desire for 

Vengeance and Destruction. 

Perhaps, if we lived •properly•, we wouldn’t have to turn to totalitarian certainty to shield ourselves from the knowledge of our own Insufficiency and Ignorance. 

Perhaps we could come to avoid those pathways to Hell — 

and we have seen in the terrible Twentieth Century 

just how real Hell can be.

Humanity, in toto, 

and those who compose it 

as identifiable people 

deserve some sympathy 

for the appalling burden 

under which 

The Human Individual 

genuinely staggers; 

Some sympathy for subjugation to 

Mortal Vulnerability, 

Tyranny of The State, and 

The Depredations of Nature. 

It is an Existential Situation that 

no mere animal encounters or endures, 

and one of severity such 

that it would take a God to fully bear it. 

It is this sympathy 

that should be the proper medicament 

for self-conscious self-contempt, 

which has its justification, 

but is only half The Full and Proper story. 

Hatred for Self and Mankind 

must be balanced with 

Gratefulness for Tradition and The State and 

Astonishment at what Normal, 

Everyday People accomplish —

to say nothing of 

The Staggering Achievements 

of the Truly Remarkable. 

We Deserve some respect. 

You Deserve some respect. 

You are important to Other People, 

as much as to yourself. 

You have some vital role to play in 
The Unfolding Destiny of The World. 

You are, therefore, morally obliged 

to take care of yourself. 

You should take care of, 

help and be good to yourself 

the same way you would take care of, help and be good to someone you loved and valued. 

You may therefore 

have to conduct yourself habitually 

in a manner that allows you 

some respect for your own Being — 

and fair enough. 

But every person is deeply flawed. 
Everyone falls short of the glory of God. 

If that stark fact meant, however, that we had no responsibility to care, for ourselves as much as others, everyone would be brutally punished all the time. 

That would not be good. 

That would make the shortcomings of the world, which can make everyone who thinks honestly question the very propriety of the world, worse in every way. 

That simply cannot be the proper path forward. 

To treat yourself as if you were someone you are responsible for helping is, instead, to consider what would be truly good for you. 

THIS IS •NOT•  

“What You WANT.” 

It is also NOR “What Would Make You HAPPY.” 

Every time you give a child something sweet, you make that child happy. 

That does NOT mean that you should do nothing for children except feed them candy. 

“Happy” is by no means synonymous with “Good.” 


You must get children to brush their teeth.

They must put on their snowsuits when they go outside in the cold, even though they might object strenuously. 

You must help a child become a virtuous, responsible, awake being, capable of full reciprocity—
Able to take care of himself and others, and to thrive while doing so. 

Why would you think it acceptable to do anything less for yourself? 

You need to consider The Future and think, 

“What might my life look like if I were caring for myself •properly•?"

"What career would challenge me and render me productive and helpful, 
so that I could shoulder my share of the load, 
and enjoy the consequences?"

"What should I be doing, when I have some freedom, to improve my health, expand my knowledge, and strengthen my body?”

You need to know where you are, so you can start to chart your course. 

You need to know who you are, so that you understand your armament and bolster yourself in respect to your limitations. 

You need to know where you are going, so that you can limit the extent of chaos in your life, restructure order, and bring the divine force of Hope to bear on The World. 

You must determine where you are going, so that you can bargain for yourself, so that you don’t end up resentful, vengeful and cruel. 

You have to articulate your own principles, so that you can defend yourself against others’ taking inappropriate advantage of you, and so that you are secure and safe while you work and play. 

You must discipline yourself carefully. 

You must keep the promises you make to yourself, and reward yourself, so that you can trust and motivate yourself. 

You need to determine how to act toward yourself so that you are most likely to become and to stay a good person. 
It would be good to make The World a better place. 

Heaven, after all, will not arrive of its own accord. 

We will have to work to bring it about, and strengthen ourselves, so that we can withstand the deadly angels and flaming sword of judgment that God used to bar its entrance. 

Don’t underestimate the power of vision and direction. 

These are irresistible forces, able to transform what might appear to be unconquerable obstacles into traversable pathways and expanding opportunities. 

Strengthen the individual. 

Start with yourself. 

Take care with yourself. 

Define who you are. 

Refine your personality. 

Choose your destination and articulate your Being. 

As the great nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche so brilliantly noted,

 “He whose life has a why can bear almost any how.” 

You could help direct The World, on its careening trajectory, a bit more toward Heaven and a bit more away from Hell. 

Once having understood Hell, researched it, so to speak—particularly your own individual Hell—you could decide against going there or creating that. 

You could aim elsewhere. 

You could, in fact, devote your life to this. 

That would give you a Meaning, with a capital M. 

That would justify your miserable existence. 

That would atone for your sinful nature, and replace your shame and self-consciousness with the natural pride and forthright confidence of someone who has learned once again to walk with God in the Garden. 

You could begin by treating yourself as if you were someone you were responsible for helping.