“We are not very good at telling stories about a hundred people doing things.”
“We need hope and purpose and membership in a community beyond the nuclear family. And this connection is both personally fulfilling and how we get stuff done that needs to be done. Lone hero narratives push one figure into the public eye, but they push everyone else back into private life, or at least passive life.”
“That’s another part of our rugged individualism and hero culture, the idea that all problems are personal and they’re all soluble by personal responsibility […] The narrative of individual responsibility and change protects stasis, whether it’s adapting to inequality or poverty or pollution. Our largest problems won’t be solved by heroes. They’ll be solved, if they are, by movements, coalitions, civil society.”
