Making a bad choice makes everyone the bad guy
There is a long, tense moment in The Magnificent 7 when the bounty hunter and his recruits are confronting the sheriff and the minions of the evil capitalist. The moment is tense because either group cold back down and walk away. They both have that choice. The antagonists could walk away because they don’t want to die. The protagonists could walk away because:
In normal times, evil would be fought by good. But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil. – from The Chronicles of Riddick.
Of course, The Magnificent 7 isn’t the only film to use bad versus bad. The surprise hit of the summer Suicide Squad takes the worst of the worse and puts them in a team to fight a bigger evil. These are characters who embrace their evil, and yet, still come together to do something good. Their actions don’t make them good, even if the outcome is good for the rest of humanity. Instead, it makes them just a bit less evil in the moment of their victory.
The ends don’t justify the means
Regardless of the situation, the ends can never justify the means. Whether it is Jean Valjean stealing bread to feed his family, a person shooting a home invader or a police officer shooting a suspect, the means that each uses to protect his or her life are bad. The action itself is bad. The person performing the act becomes in that moment bad and for every moment thereafter, just a little more evil. Doing wrong destroys our humanity a little with each action.
I'm bad, and that's good! I will never be good, and that's not bad! – from Wreck-It Ralph.
Just because it is a bad action, doesn’t mean that it isn’t okay. People make mistakes. With a few exceptions, like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, we are all bad guys. We can’t make the best decision in every situation; the survival instinct is too strong. What we can hope for is that in our dealings with other living beings we are just, true to ourselves, empathetic and, more than anything, compassionate.
Do you want to play a game? – from Saw III.
In order to achieve our best selves, we need to find the place where we care more for others well-being and those others include everyone who is different from us in appearance, beliefs and lifestyle. We won’t always be able to stand tall and say “I made the right choice,” but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try every day. There will be situations that arise wherein there are no good choices. The goal of our game is to make sure that those situations come up less often than they should. Still, sometimes, the right choice is bad.
- This isn’t their fight.
- They want to get the main bad guy.
- They believe there could be a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
In normal times, evil would be fought by good. But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil. – from The Chronicles of Riddick.
Of course, The Magnificent 7 isn’t the only film to use bad versus bad. The surprise hit of the summer Suicide Squad takes the worst of the worse and puts them in a team to fight a bigger evil. These are characters who embrace their evil, and yet, still come together to do something good. Their actions don’t make them good, even if the outcome is good for the rest of humanity. Instead, it makes them just a bit less evil in the moment of their victory.
The ends don’t justify the means
Regardless of the situation, the ends can never justify the means. Whether it is Jean Valjean stealing bread to feed his family, a person shooting a home invader or a police officer shooting a suspect, the means that each uses to protect his or her life are bad. The action itself is bad. The person performing the act becomes in that moment bad and for every moment thereafter, just a little more evil. Doing wrong destroys our humanity a little with each action.
I'm bad, and that's good! I will never be good, and that's not bad! – from Wreck-It Ralph.
Just because it is a bad action, doesn’t mean that it isn’t okay. People make mistakes. With a few exceptions, like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, we are all bad guys. We can’t make the best decision in every situation; the survival instinct is too strong. What we can hope for is that in our dealings with other living beings we are just, true to ourselves, empathetic and, more than anything, compassionate.
Do you want to play a game? – from Saw III.
In order to achieve our best selves, we need to find the place where we care more for others well-being and those others include everyone who is different from us in appearance, beliefs and lifestyle. We won’t always be able to stand tall and say “I made the right choice,” but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try every day. There will be situations that arise wherein there are no good choices. The goal of our game is to make sure that those situations come up less often than they should. Still, sometimes, the right choice is bad.