Is THIS beyond redemption?

Morning!

(spoilers about Batman Dark Knight coming your way – abandon ship if you don’t want to be spoiled!)

Well!

My oh my.

I just returned from taking Honorable Daughter I to see the movie Batman.  You see, first off, everyone and their friendly neighborhood coffee cup has rhapsodized about the movie – my friends have, my social networks have, heck, even my senseis have….it was the OMIGOSH THE EPIC EVENT BRIMMING WITH EPICNESS THAT I JUST HAAAAAAD TO SEE!

Enough caps for you?  🙂

Now, keep in my a bit of my background here – I live for Star Wars and find the epic themes prevalent in that series to be worthy of utter blinding adoration (how can you improve on the last scene of Padme holding Anakin’s charm to her heart?).

And Batman the Dark Knight?

Well, perhaps it’s that my 40+ years of living experience has left me a weeeee bit jaded.  Fact is, I already KNOW:

• Psychos exist in this world (heck, I dated one at age 15 – such things tend to stay with you)
• Ordinary people are capable of extraordinary acts of courage when their loved ones are threatened
• There are people for whom mass, utter destruction for the sole purpose of destruction is enough reason to torch the world
• People like finding scapegoats (gosh that was pounded into me during many abusive years in grammar school)

So for me, yawn, no new message there.  And the part about Batman willing to be reviled for the greater good?

I’ve lived 20+ years of my life with the same notion.  It’s part of my personal code – I would willingly lose the love and affection of my loved ones and friends if I knew it would save their lives in the end.  

One always sacrifices for those whom one loves.  It’s just the norm.  It’s expected.

Thus, my overall reaction to the movie – it will be forgotten by next year.  The epic of Star Wars, however, defined a culture and set of beliefs that will last for decades on end.

But that’s not the point of my post.  You know the ferry scene, the one in which one ferry was filled with criminals who had murdered, and other other filled with "good citizens"?  I idly commented to my daughter that I believed if someone willingly in cold blood murders another person (or rapes them, or engages in domestic violence etc.), they have surrendered any claims to humanity they might have had. 

Oh, the shock on her face.  I had forgotten that she lacks my life’s experiences and hasn’t seen 1/10th of what I have myself. 

Which brings me to the following idea –

When are people BEYOND redemption?

Hmmm?

I have a very set black and white view on the whole matter. 

I firmly believe in treating others as you’d like to be treated yourself….and an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 

If you’re going to be part of a community, you need to be a benefit (or at the very least, not destructive).  If you cross the line into cold-blooded murder (or rape, or domestic violence, or what have you), you’ve willingly given up your rights as a member of that community.

What do you think?

Pondering,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about the Dark Knight, have you seen: