An Issue of Equality.

I was thinking earlier about those films in which the hero despatches his enemies until he emerges victorious. In such productions we are always guided to believe that the lives of those enemies are of negligible importance, if any at all. But if the hero’s life is threatened, our concern isn’t limited to the deleterious consequences which might ensue upon his demise; we are led to consider his very life itself as being of the utmost consequence.

I no longer find this acceptable. To me, every life – no matter how badly it has been lived – is sacred in its existence and to be mourned in its passing. I would find it hard to envisage a situation in which I could celebrate the taking of any life without some degree of regret. It’s why I no longer watch that sort of film, and why I’m so opposed to capital punishment, and why I find the lynch law mentality one of the bleakest of human failings.