Jor-El on the Planet Krypton

Last Friday, I had a chance to see one of the films on my list of eagerly-anticipated movies. Al Gore, the formerly “wooden” career politician, is the unlikely star of a very important documentary about some issues that cannot be ignored.

Like Al Gore, I believe this is more than just a political issue. This is a moral issue, and I don’t think it should be ignored, any more than the issue of totalitarianism was addressed during World War II.

On June 30, I look forward to seeing one of the other eagerly-anticipated movies- a multi-million dollar extravaganza about an idealist that runs around the world in colorful underwear, saving the world from evil corporate crooks like Lex Luthor. Call me a hopeless dreamer, but I love this kind of escapist nonsense.

Elliot S. Maggin, author of the Superman comics from 1971-1986, wrote an excellent opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times that compares the message of Al Gore with the mythology of Superman.

At the time, I was writing Superman comics, and Sarah’s onetime namesake, you will recall, is Superman’s Kryptonian father, an eminent scientist whom the ruling “Science Council” of his world laughed out of the room when he told them that they were facing a planetary crisis: “Gentlemen, Krypton is doomed.”

I have often thought that doctors and scientists, trained to concern themselves with truth and human values, would be more suitable candidates to set public policy than those schooled in law, economics and management who commonly populate our public servants’ talent pool.

But on Krypton, either the essential nature of scientists diverged from that of the open-minded and collaborative types with whom we are familiar here on Earth, or generations of “scientific” rule had befouled the Kryptonian leaders to the degree that they became as shortsighted and starchy as those who traditionally administer our own public affairs.

You can read the rest of this article by accessing the LATimes.com website, or by clicking here.