Let’s face it: most of us who grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons or reading comic books imagined being one of the X-Men. Can you blame us? In a world full of superheroes and supervillains, how awesome would it be to live as a mutant with the power to walk through walls or to read minds? Being a mutant sounds like it would be awesome!
But what many people fail to realize is that the grass is always greener on the other side. While we watch or read about the X-Men and think it would be cool to have certain powers like flight or teleportation, we often miss the bigger picture: being a mutant (at least, in terms of Marvel’s mutants) would kind of suck.
6. Your Powers May Overcome You
Congratulations – you now have the ability to read minds. What are you going to do first? Probably talk to your crush and see what they’re thinking about you. But wait – that person not only doesn’t like you, they also can’t stand you and think you’re a jerk. Ignorance really is bliss, but how can you enjoy that bliss if you’re stuck with the ability to read people’s thoughts? It’s like you’re living in a world where people no longer hold back their opinions of you. Think you can handle it?
5. You Will Become Popular (But Not In A Good Way)
When you find out that you can fly or that you can teleport, you may want to keep it a secret. Then you start letting your friends and family in on the truth. Next thing you know, you’re on talk shows and the news, showcasing your abilities. This might seem cool for the first few months, but eventually, you’ll grow tired of being a sideshow exhibit. You’re still a human being, but it’s hard for people to realize that when you can shoot fire from your hands or you can turn into ice. You can try your hardest to remain incognito with your powers, but it’s only a matter of time before news leaks and you find yourself caged up in a zoo where people throw peanuts at you until you do a trick for them.
4. People Will Ask For Help
There is this one episode of Spongebob Squarepants where the titular character gains the ability to fly. It seems like a great power at first, until people start asking him to take care of menial tasks like cleaning the garage or massaging an old man’s scalp. This is all done for the sake of comedy, but it’s a sad representation of what it truly would be like to have powers. People will ask you for favors all the time. You can conjure fire? Heat up this burger for me real quick. You have super strength? Help jack up my car so I can change the tire.
3. You Will Have Enormous Responsibility
It’s not just your friends and family who will be asking for favors from you now that you have mutant powers; the police, the fire department, and the hospital will not only expect you to help them, but they might actually deem it mandatory. If someone is stuck at the top of a burning building, do you think the fire department will risk sending fighters into the flames? Or will they ask for help from the person who happens to be able to fly or who can control water? You will become a public servant whether you like it or not. You can choose to not help the police or fire department, but you run the risk of being held accountable for neglecting to assist in a situation.
2. People Will No Longer Trust You
Even though people will request favors from you, it doesn’t mean that they will necessarily trust you. You will be considered a savior to half of the population, and a threat to the other. Parents who want to protect their children will not feel safe knowing that a mutant with the ability to walk through walls or who can conjure fire is at the school. Think it would be cool to be able to read minds? Think again. People will be afraid to be around you because they wouldn’t want you to read their thoughts. The government might keep tabs on you as well. Some mutants have powers that are as dangerous as high-class weapons, so why should they let you run rampant without supervision?
1. You Will Face Discrimination
We are all human, even if some of us are found to be mutants. The decent people of Earth realize that. Unfortunately, this concept does not apply to the entire planet’s population. We are plagued with certain people who think negatively of different races, religions, or genders. Imagine if mutants were a part of our society. They would face discrimination on a whole new level. Some people will hate and fear mutants because they are afraid of what they can do. This can lead to violence, destruction, and other forms of hate-crimes that would set our society back generations.
It is a sad truth that our civilization may not be prepared to accept mutants into our world. Thankfully, the concept only exists within our imagination for now. But what if mutants like those in the Marvel universe start to become real? How would humanity deal with it?
Do you think there would be problems like the ones mentioned above if mutants were real? Or do you think we could all coexist peacefully? Let us know what you think in the comments or on Twitter!