Spiderman: The Prideful Nephite

Stardate 05-23-2007

Its happened to the best of them: The Backstreet Boys, Corey Feldman, Brittany Spears, Marie Osmond, Enron. Their start is humble, eagre and full of ambition. They are willing to work hard, put forth the effort and do whatever it takes to reach their goals. Soon their hard work pays off; they are rewarded for all of their time and effort that they have put forth. For these people, their rewards could have been self satisfaction, recognition, promotions, gigs, record contracts, acting roles, money and fame. They continue to live right and work hard, but soon, living right and working hard are forgotten and replaced with what is making them happy in that moment, which are of course, the fruits of their hard work. They soon forget what got them to the top and they start to care more about the fruits than the labors. Before they know it, Litte Nicky of BSB aint so little anymore; he's a fat drunk and his best friend AJ is checking into rehab. Corey can't act anymore because he's got too much coke up his nose. Brittany's shaving her head and becoming the laughing stock of the media. Marie decides not to love her kids anymore, and Enron's top exectutives are stealing the pensions of their hard working employees. Their pride and wickedness have lead to destruction and suffering. Not only for themselves, but for those around them. They have fallen and they are no more.

The scriptures teach us that this can happen to all of us. It can in fact, happen to an entire civilization. Those who have read the Book of Mormon know that the Nephites constantly fell into this vicious pride cycle. Their humility would lead to righteousness and prosperity, which would lead to pride and wickedness, which would lead to destruction and suffering, which comes full circle with humility and repentance. Over and over again. The following is a scripture from the Book of Mormon that illustrates this point-

"Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind of art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yeah, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yeah, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One--yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity." -- Helaman 12:2

We can now add one more to the luandry list of those who have fallen into the Pride Cycle. I recently went to see Spiderman 3 and was suprised to see how closely this movie followed this cycle. The first thing that we see in Spiderman 3 is that Spidy has risen to the top. Everyone loves him and crime is at an all time low. Peter Parker is also on top. It appears that he has finally figured out how to balance his personal life, MJ and school, with his life of fighting crime. Pretty soon Peter starts to love how famous he has become. He even has advice on what its like to be famous for his broadway star girlfriend, MJ.

The time comes for Spidey to take on the Sandman. Spiderman basically gets worked and can do little or nothing against this new villain. Luckily for Spidey, a strange alien has fallen from the sky. It looks like stringy strands of gooey black tar that can attach and mold itself to whatever it wants. We eventually find out that it can also take over whoever it molds itself to. Well, this black goo molds itself to Spiderman's suit and when Peter tries it on, he finds that he is faster, stronger, more powerful. Powerful enough to take out the Sandman. This new power doesn't come without its consequences. It makes Peter mean and hutful. He cares about no one but himself. For me, this black goo is an obvious metaphor for pride and both Peter and Spidey have fallen victim to it.

It takes while, but Peter is able to see how terrible he has been treating those whom he loves. He realizes the evil of the suit and tears it off of his body. At the end of the fim, Spiderman has to humble himself, swallow his pride and ask the help of one who used to be his enemy in order to save MJ from both Sandman and Venom.

Hopefully my literally thousands of readers can learn from Spiderman, the Nephites, and others who have come before them and not fall victim to the pride cycle. Unless of course you want to become a Dark Lord of the Sith. In that case you should use pride to make you more powerful.