Not Created Equal - Elitism in My Hero Academia

You've articulated your points, but the term 'elitism' doesn't really fit in how you are using it. A meritocratic system might be closer to it, or those based from the leadership of 'experts'.

You made it

-good looks -does not show their face in most videos Makes sense to me.

While I agree with most of the points, I think it's worth pointing out the things that was skipped: that the system of MHA's world fails at creating it's ideal, and that failure is kind of central to it's larger thematic conflicts between the LOV and society as a whole, and also in smaller ways like with Shinso. He could be an excellent hero but the "objective" measures of ability used to select the top hero candidates carry with them the inherent biases of the ones that created them. It's pointed out that the UA entrance exam for the hero course is heavily stacked towards heavy combat type quirks, but makes no accountance for the fact there are multiple ways to fight a battle beyond just smashing things. Shinso's ability is DEVASTATING against any human villain target, but that is impossible to illustrate in UA's exam, hell, it's implied that Aizawa had a similar problem during his school days. We can assume that this type of thing isn't limited to heroism or even UA, it's a filtering system that is built into most facets of this world, and means that people who could leaders of theirs fields of interest are selected out of them because the ones doing the selection lack the vision to recognize their potential and how things can be done differently. MHA's world is built around the idea that there is a role for everyone, yes, but that role is not by any means the role that they could or would be best at, it is the role that the world will allow them to fill.

The editing at 19:46 implies that the kids ability to pull his eyes out of their sockets is not his inherent quirk but something he learned. Well done kid, you worked hard and extended your skillset, i am so proud of you.

I generally agree with you, but find it worth highlighting how poorly many real elitist systems, and indeed MHA, fail to properly evaluate what makes people good at a thing. The classic MHA example is rejecting a person with the power to instantly subdue many villains without conflict in Hitoshi Shinso. Often people at the top overvalue people who do well in a way they know how to measure, and fail to value those who don’t.

"Turning ignorance into a sin makes people unwilling to seek help for fear of being perceived as dumb." Can I have that engraved on my wall please that's a great line.

“This being a contradiction Of Thomas Jefferson— The slave owner. “ I subscribed literally because of that lol.

To be fair, the society of My Hero Academia is, despite all its flashiness, a dark dystopian world. Because of Quirks, scientific advancement has crawled to a halt (they said it so, that humanity would have invented space travel by that point if Quirks didn't appear). Also, some people are then MUCH above the rest of humanity in term of individual power, which is unheard of in human history. You can argue all you want that the My Hero Academia is meritocratic and elitist like a real one, but in reality no one has such overwhelming advantages over the others. In our society, a naturally strong person would get their butt kicked by an expert martial artist. The so called "geniuses" still need countless hours of study to perform well, and usually hard work and tutoring can actually make someone as effective (if not more) than a naturally gifted person. Meanwhile in the world of My Hero Academia some people can topple skyscrapers with a sneeze from birth. Hard work is just 10% (and I'm being generous) of what defines success in the world of heroes, as someone who has a weaker quirk simply cannot compete with someone who has a strong one. The "Hero" job in itself is just a show, a palliative to prevent people from realizing that some individuals can destroy the whole society if they wish to.

So your saying UA is a super prestigious trade school ??

So... TLDR: "Self-improve and find your niche instead of striving for unattainable goals." Honestly, kinda inspiring. At my workplace, a law firm, I perform a menial task: disassembling files and scanning them onto a computer. That's almost all I do most weekdays with only small alterations here and there. I'm not a big-brain lawyer or busy-bee assistant; I'm the cleanup guy with the repetitive task. My coworkers do not envy me, stating how they would go mad under those circumstances. Meanwhile, I'm content - it's a low-stress position on a foundation of consistency that gives me plenty of mind space for thinking. In a niche others dread, I find comfort and excel.

>endbringer attacks Someone's been reading Worm

“Mineta’s a better best girl than you!” -Explanation Point, 2019

A Code Geass video as a counterpoint to this video could be nice. Not only does Emperor Charles use the phrase "All men are not created equal" as well, but the show takes the meaning in a different direction, referring to those with power ruling freely over those without. Framing it as a comparison could also give it the requisite HeroAca tie-in :p

This is quite good but I think you left out an extremely important thing, the economic component. The reality is that not all roles/jobs have the same economic reward and that effects peoples decisions, often leading them to pursue careers that they hate/ are not suited for because they will get more compensation from it. Just because a person might be suited for a certain job/role doesn't mean that role is going to be rewarding or profitable and that is true even in an super power society. People are going to go for what most benefits themselves first and then worry about 'the best use of there abilities' second because at the end of the day people are more worried about surviving and living comfortable lives than any philosophical good they could do. It doesn't matter how important that role is, if it doesn't provide the level of compensation people want , or need to live, then the job falls to people whom have no other alternative to said job.

I absolutely love how you Worm in parahumans references. You should be awarded. It's so well pact in.

I was not expecting endbringers to be brought up

“There isn’t one singular way to be useful, but there is only one way to be useless: the refusal to better yourself or move forward.”

I agree with the fundamentals of your analysis, but for real world application I feel like it's necessary to really emphasize that this competitive mentality only works if society is structured to be fundamentally cooperative. If living in society is framed as a competition, and losing in that competition results in not having the resources to live a decent life, then helping or teaching others becomes counter-productive, since it wastes time and resources, that could have been spent on improving yourself, on improving the abilities of your potential rivals to out-compete you. If maximizing your own place on the totem pole is the primary objective, then keeping others down is often more effective than raising yourself up. So yes, we should absolutely have competition for luxury, or status, or positions of authority, but we must ensure that we are not competing against each other for the fulfillment of basic needs, because that turns society into a zero-sum game, that incentivizes sabotage over upliftment, and turns constructive good-natured competition into cut-throat, socially destructive competition.

There are two ways I like to watch an Explanation Point video: 1. Listen to Mr Point's calming voice as he dives through his carefully written script filled with every kind of tool a writer needs to master their craft, and ponder the meanings and significance of what the video discusses. 2. pWeTty EDitS WEHooooAAA~!!!