Charity Begins at Home.

I just watched an episode of X Files, the plot of which revolved around the ghost of a murdered man who had once run a company selling defence equipment (in the circumstances, I suppose that should read defense equipment.) He’s cast as having been a good guy.

As the story unfolds, it’s revealed that this company has been selling their goods at exaggerated prices to a terrorist group, at which point the astute viewer will make an obvious connection: Terrorists kill innocent people. Lots of them. The more the merrier. That’s their job, and Mr Good Guy has been getting rich by selling them the equipment to help them do it. (The astute viewer has to make this connection unaided because there’s nothing in the script to guide him.)

But one day he learns that two American sailors got killed in one of their attacks. He has a crisis of conscience, breaks down, and decides to close the company. That’s what gets him murdered, and that’s what makes him a good guy.

Have I said enough to make my point?