Friday, July 02, 2010

Another Discussion Of Good And Evil?

There's that Edmund Burke quote, 'All that is required for evil to triumpg is for good men to do nothing'* I've been thinking, does that mean someone who fights against evil is "good"? As fiction fans (and especially as comic fans) we've all seen stories where the villains team-up with the heroes to take down some greater menace.

The Rocketeer, for example. Late in the movie, the gangsters team up with the Feds to fight the Nazis. Are they good men? I'm sure they think so. Mobsters usually seem to be portrayed as thinking of themselves strictly as enterprising, but strict, businessmen. Simply providing goods and services the public demands, without concern for piddling things like laws. Actions tend to speak louder, and their actions up to that point in the film would point to them not being good. So for that brief moment, and only then, they are good men? That could be it, since we could argue that at that moment, they were motivated by some nationalistic pride**, rather than their usual interest in money. It wasn't driven by purely selfish reasons. Unless it was because bootlegging would be harder in a Nazi-conquered America.

The example I think started this was the conclusion of Buffy Season 2. Spike helps Buffy save the world, but his reasons seemed to be: 1) Screw over Angelus/Angel, because he hates him. 2) Get Drusilla back, and well away from the Slayer. 3) He likes the world how it is, as it is. None of those motives are exactly "good", since one of the reasons he likes the world is all the people there are for him to kill and eat. Still, he did help, to the extent of keeping Angelus from taking a chainsaw to Giles, and keeping Buffy from having to fight Dru and Angelus simultaneously. So I'm not sure one could say Spike was a good person, but he still chose to do something.

I guess the mobsters and Spike were good when compared to what they were fighting against, so it could be a relative thing, but I'm not sure less evil = good. I certainly think a person can go against their typical impulses, so maybe they were "good" in that moment, and that's really all that's required.

That's it for me until next Thursday, I leave it to you to discuss amongst yourselves.

* I'm not sure that's the exact phrasing. I've seen "is that good men", and "all that is necessary" as well.

** Though I'd say nationalism isn't always a good motive. Can lead to isolationism, xenophobia, imperialism. Might get some positive results out of those occasionally, but I wouldn't bet on it.

2 comments:

Seangreyson said...

The gangsters in Rocketeer weren't good, they had been murdering people earlier in the movie after all.

But during WWII there was both official and unofficial cooperation with the Mafia to fight the Nazis, so it was reasonably appropriate in the movie.

As for Angel, his actions were selfish and, as you pointed out, evil. Sure it was a lesser evil compared to the destroy the world plan but his basic motivations were still evil.

SallyP said...

May I answer your quote about "good men" with another one.

"Better the devil you know...!"

'Cuz even gangsters are better than Nazis!