Liz Graves: Assignment 3

Human history has been shaped by conflict. When we, as students, learn about World History, U.S. History, or even the history of an organization, we focus on a certain struggle and the fallout from that struggle. Usually, the ones telling the story are the good guys; the Rebels fought the American Revolution against the tyranny of the British; Batman defeats the Joker in an epic battle of quick wit and explosions; the Kentucky Wildcats dominate the Louisville Cardinals, which can only mean that God Himself is a UK fan. We are told that there can only be the noble vs. the cheaters, the brave vs. the cowards, but have any of us ever stopped to think about what makes one noble, brave, a cheater or a coward? Is it the motivation of the individual? Is it the way they fight? Is it simply the cause itself, and therefore the ends will always justify the means? Is the good fight always the good fight?

Probably the most common way people analyze good vs. evil is the motivations that drive an individual to fight for a certain cause. The Avengers, in this case, are the essence of pure good, because their motivation, after all, was to save humanity and to restore peace to world. But are all the people they must have killed in their battles with extraterrestrials inconsequential? What do we say to the people who were financially ruined and lost everything in the utter destruction of New York City? To many of those people, the Avengers are the enemy; their carelessness cost them everything. Many may chuckle at this analogy because the idea of someone like Captain American being the villain is preposterous, but why? Why do we defend him even after he caused so much destruction? The answer: perspective. We are able to overlook the negative consequences because we, as outsiders who have no stake in the hypothetical ruin of an entire city, can see that the end result is good. 

What happens, though, when we cannot remain objective bystanders? Say, for instance, you are the CEO of a booming business and the headquarters of your business was in one of the buildings that were destroyed in the Avengers' fight. Now, your business wasn't always booming; you grew up in poor family and you had "to work twice as hard as everyone else just to get half of what they have". You're smart, though, and you've made some very shrewd business deals that brought your company out of your basement to a grand, important office in a skyscraper. If the story was told from your perspective, the Avengers are now an arrogant group of government cronies that slaughtered your livelihood and left you with nothing. You, the good, hard-working citizen, have lost, and the evil Avengers take home this victory. 

It is also entirely possible that you could be the bad guy in this case, too. There could be a receptionist that works in your office that makes an effort to smile everyday and bring cheer to the office. Her own life is a train wreck, though. She has been laid off three times in the past year, she is struggling to buy groceries because of her crippling student loans, and her only friend in the world has just moved out of the country. You, of course, have no idea of any of this and you treat her with disrespect everyday because she is just a lowly office worker who works for you. You are now the epitome of evil. You are selfish and cruel. She is brave and kind. 

There is an endless list of scenarios one can come up with, and all of them can be framed in a way that allows the most devilish villain to have the truest heart and angelic damsel in distress to commit the most unforgivable sins. Through this we can see there is no such thing as pure good and pure evil, even when technically the same story is being told. The bad guy and the good guy are both determined by the perspective of the one narrating. To me, there is no question of whether or not there is good and evil, but rather what is the good and what is the evil? Strife will always exist in the world as long as humans inhabit this planet. As certain as the presence of that strife is, so is the uncertainty of what is right and what is wrong. 

*This is a paraphrase of a quote from the popular TV show Scandal.