What Is So Great About Being Super?

Ironically, “super” is the worst adjective in the dictionary. Its various definitions are simply too diverse to be sloppily thrown into one word. For instance, according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, “super” can mean that something is (1) “of high grade or quality”, (2) “very large or powerful”, or (3) “exhibiting the characteristics of its type to an extreme or excessive degree.”

Anyone who has ever stayed at a Super 8 motel can attest that not everything advertised as “super” is “of high quality.” In fact, most things that appear powerful or excessive are not top grade. Just ask the Titanic’s captain, the Hindenburg’s pilot, or anyone who has ever listened to Paris Hilton sing. Often “super” really isn’t that hot.

Even though “super” has vastly different meanings, Americans cast the word around without hesitation. For example, America ’s two most “super” events will occur during the next week: the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday (my apologies to the Super Giant Slalom). The question is though: will either Sunday or Tuesday be “super” for America ?

The Super Bowl should be “of high grade or quality” as both teams feature superstars with seemingly superhuman abilities. The game should also be “large and powerful” both economically and culturally. Finally, is there any event in America that better “exhibits the characteristics of its type to an extreme degree”?

Super Tuesday also will be “powerful” as more than twenty states will select almost 50% of the parties’ delegates. It also will “exhibit the characteristics of its type to an extreme degree” as the Media will gossip about the candidates, who in turn will blather about why they represent change, hope or whatever buzzword they are incessantly parroting. But it will not be “high quality” because it will be, as it always is, more circus act than civic debate. We will likely learn nothing new and our apathy will continue to envelop us.

Eugene McCarthy, an expert on failed presidential campaigns, once said, “Being in politics is like being a football coach, you have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.” His comparison between politics and football was apt and can be furthered. They both involve complex strategies aimed at brutalizing opponents. They both are played almost exclusively by men. Both have heroes, parties and cheerleaders, though at least politics spares us the sight of pundits with pom-poms. Both are misunderstood by the international community. Watching either one for an extended period of time requires the consumption of large quantities of alcohol. Finally, whoever prevails, in politics or football, immediately retreats to a fantasy land. For Sunday’s champs, Disneyland , and for Tuesday’s, Washington D.C.

But I refuse to accept McCarthy’s idea that politics, like football, lacks inherent importance. Politics may also be a game, but there is a lot more riding on the outcome. Although we are a “superpower”, we will never be an America “of high quality” again until we stop shirking our civic duty to stay informed and vote.

As the true superintendents of this nation, we are responsible for its maintenance and we must repair the damage it has suffered. But instead of supervising, we opt for supersizing. We frivolously fill up with super unleaded gas, take the superhighway to the supermarket, get a trim at Supercuts while listening to Supertramp, and still make it back home in time to watch movies with the kids about superheroes. We are blinded by the “super” stuff all around us, as well as our own feelings of superiority.

It’s time to abandon our excesses and embrace our civic duties. I am not saying we need to give up the pigskin, but maybe we should care as much about politics as we do about football. 144 million Americans tuned in to the 2004 Super Bowl while only 122 million voted in that year’s presidential election. Super? No. Superficial? You bet.