Instruction: Should superheroes be allowed to break the law?


Response: In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “The Conservative,” he claims that the law doesn’t affect heroes because they will do what is right no matter what. While the term hero is subjective, as not all people who break the laws are heroes, Emerson is correct to argue that to be truly just and great sometimes requires breaking the law.
	A common example of greatness is superheroes; their extraordinary physical abilities put to use to save the world from evil. However, their greatness sometimes conflicts with the law. For example, in Spiderman, Peter Parker choses to keep his identity a secret, to protect himself not only from paparatzi like J. Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons), but also from police. Though Spiderman is a hero at heart, he commits murder, puts people in harms way, and destroys buildings and public spaces. However, because he is a hero, he is able to “outshine” the law in order to continue to help and save the people of New York.
	Another example of sacraficial heroism is playing defensive soccer, only is this case the laws are the rules and breaking them is just a foul. A good defender knows that when their defense is outnumbered by the opposing attackers, their defense is out of position, or their goalie is out of position, you have to commit a foul. Though the foul gives the other team an opportunity to set up a potential scoring play, the sacrifice must be made in order for the defense to recollect and reorganize, allowing them to be better prepared for the attack. Though this form of heroism isn’t as grand as Spiderman, breaking the “laws” of the game is still very important and generally considered to be the smarter play.
	Though Emerson’s point is generally true, there are some faults, the most important one being that not everyone who breaks the law is considered to be a hero to everyone. Though this struggle can also be seen is Spiderman, a much better example is our former president, Donald Trump. Former President Trump has escaped paying taxes, began violent riots, and has even been impeached for using his position to attempt to take down a political rival (President Biden). In many Americans eyes, Donald Trump is not a hero but a villan who gained power by uniting his followers with rage, creating a cult of angry conservatives who follow his every order. However, to those who do support him, Trump is a hero who saved the USA from “crazy liberals” like Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton. There are hundreds of thousands of people who break the law who aren’t heroes, like Donald Trump.
	On the contrary, in some cases, sometimes being a hero requires breaking the law in order to achieve equality. On of the greatest examples of law-breaking heroes is Gandhi, the Indian nationalist whose goal was achieving India’s independence from the British. Gandhi, though he is considered to be one of the most respected role models for peace, was imprisoned 11 times for breaking British laws in India. He used his imprisonments to unite Indians to rise against the British government with non-violent protesting. Gandhi encouraged people to break the law in order to expose the horrible violence that the British inflicted on India. Gandhi was and is a hero to many and yet he broke the law hundreds of times.
	Being a true hero takes guts, compassion, and sacrifice, all of which support Emerson’s idea that true heroes don’t need to follow the law. Laws are created as a social contract, an idea which came from enlightenment philosophe Jean-Jaques Rousseau, who believed that the social contract bound our society together and kept people in check based on the morals and values of the community. The purpose of laws is to create equality for large amounts of people, an equality that stops people from doing whatever they want that could potentially disrupt society. 
However, humans are imperfect and because of that humans can create imperfect laws. One rule that Gandhi fought against was that Indians couldn’t make their own salt from the ocean, they had to purchase it from the British, who had plainly taken the salt from India, sent it back to England to be processed, and then shipped it back to India to make a profit. Gandhi argued why must Indians buy british salt when we can make our own Indian salt right here? This law was clearly ridiculous: why should Indians have to buy British salt? 
It is because of imperfect laws that heroes, like Gandhi, should break the law and make their own salt. Sometimes breaking the law allows Spiderman to save the city from the Green Goblin, or allows the defense to organize and defeat their oposing attackers, or allows Gandhi to free India from the violent control of the British Empire. Yes not all who break the law are good, but heroes who break the law outshine the law in order to create more good and improve the world we live in.