Wanted. Superheroes.

Just recently I’ve been reading ‘Watchmen’, an Alan Moore graphic novel first published in twelve installments during 1986 and 1987; many graphic novel aficionados claim it is the finest example of this publishing genre.

The story centres on a group of superheroes in the style of Superman and Spiderman, by which I mean they are costumed; except the ‘Watchmen’ superheroes are really just ordinary citizens, vigilantes, poncing around in spandex. The one exception is Doctor Manhattan – he’s genuinely a superhero but he spends a great deal of time naked, which maybe explains why he’s blue; but then again, maybe not.

You might be forgiven for thinking that an aging warrior should be reading a more traditional story form, just words on a page, and typically I do, but I came across this graphic novel while reading a traditional book; and I was intrigued.

I have been reading ‘Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell’, a captivating Susanna Clarke novel about magic in nineteenth-century England, so I checked out her web site and discovered she lists the ‘Watchman’ as one of the most influential books she’s ever read. I was even more intrigued.

So I had to discover the ‘Watchmen’ for myself; discovering is, I believe, one of the marks of an aging warrior.

Anyway, the story has me thinking about the idea of watchmen – super heroes by definition, if not if fact, who are engaged in watching; but what and who should they be watching?

Well, I can only speak for the country in which I live half my life – Australia; here it’s very clear that we need watchmen, and it’s also clear whom they should be watching: our politicians and bureaucrats.

In Australia our current federal government is spending our hard-earned tax dollars - some would say squandering - at a rate never before experienced in Australia.

Yet despite this, the programs launched since their ascendancy to power have been characterised by failure: school buildings constructed by companies that enjoy union or government patronage that cost more than twice comparable buildings built by companies without similar patronage; borders that are leaking like a sieve; debate in our parliament has been reduced to the standards of a vaudeville act – a bad one at that; legislation now cripples every activity – from the most mundane to the crucial; cleanup activities after major flooding and several cyclones are limping along and ordinary people sit waiting and wondering as our army of bureaucratic incompetents design forms and sip cafe latte; common sense infrastructure initiatives such as dams, which could have helped contain the waters that now flood vast stretches of the eastern half of our continent, have been dumped in favour of expensive energy-guzzling desalination plants which are no longer needed for the foreseeable future; and tax cripples business, particularly small business, which is the heartbeat of our nation’s commerce.

Yes. We need as many superheroes as we can find to watch this mess and alert the endangered citizens of Australia.

So where do we find them? Where are these superheroes?

Well. It’s you and me. Come on aging warriors: this is a battle cry.

But please don’t ask me to wear a spandex costume!