No Heroes Left

It is a small miracle that any human today remains sane. We are overdeveloped apes on a pebble hurtling through darkness, who dimly flicker for a moment and return to the void whence we came. Simultaneously, we own a sense of self vast enough to watch our own slow march toward annihilation. And so we cope. In The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker writes of the cultural imperative to partialize oneself in a small domain of the world, and within this domain embark on a heroic journey towards immortality. The week after I read that book, I stood in the Library of Congress where the following was engraved: GLORY IS ACQVIRED BY VIRTVE, BVT PRESERVED BY LETTERS. That, perhaps, is the domain and partialization of a librarian: to find heroism vicariously through others. If only it were so easy for us all, who must find meaning unguided. Today, who can size their world for heroism? To partialize is to outsource purpose to a domain that outlives you. In early society, the bountiful hunter,…