ABSTRACT
A significant thing about the age in which we live is its antiheroism—its tired, apathetic, cool, and beat rejection of lofty goals. Mockery of heroes seems to mean a low level of aspiration. Two kinds of reaction seem likely in a society with inferior models: people who hanker for the "higher" types will despise the prevailing mediocre ones, and those satisfied with mediocre models will mock and reject the higher ones. So there are two sources of mockery of heroes: disappointed people with high ideals and people satisfied with low ideals. Another high minded mock hero is Candide, whose catastrophes before finally learning to mind his own garden are well known. A less classical mock hero comes from James Thurber. Some heroes "succeed" so dismally that we see their victory is a kind of mockery; many are rogues, whose way of acting on the way to success is opposite that of the good guy.
