Who is the bad guy? And do we have to blow them up?

Just some thoughts about a veteran's day concert, Star Wars and what it means to be a hero.

Spokane is really into Veteran's day. I've never lived anywhere so into Veteran's day.

Each year, I attend my children's elementary school Veteran's Day concert. This year I added the middle school's Veteran's Day concert into the mix.

As I sat watching 7th graders sing "America the Beautiful," my nervous system flooded with dopamine and serotonin of its own accord.

I'll admit my logical self is highly skeptical of Americana sentimentality, but my tear ducts seemed to have a mind of their own as I applauded the veterans.

The next day I was sitting next to a friend of mine watching my 5th grader sing "This Land is My Land, This Land is Your Land" at the elementary school Veteran's Day concert. I was telling her of my surprisingly emotional response to these nationalistic ballads.

This particular friend's husband worked for the state department as a US diplomat for over 15 years. Their family lived in Africa, the middle east and eastern Europe.

She said she always found the emotional fervor over military veterans very interesting, particularly in comparison with the lack of reciprocal sentimental fervor over diplomats. Not just when it comes to holidays, but in everything from health care to discounts at DisneyLand and Burger King, military personnel are offered privileges that diplomats are not.

Not saying there aren't good reasons for the discounts (diplomats are generally paid more), but still, I've never seen anyone get teary eyed singing about a diplomat. 

Isn't it interesting that we get so sentimental and celebratory over those fighting wars and not so much over those whose primary job description is "promoting peace"? **

I hadn't ever thought of that before.

Something I have thought of before is patriarchy's undying urgency to FIGHT for the right side.

Emphasis on fight.

The glorification of righteous violence.

I notice this in every action movie I watch. 

In the final battle scene- the music swells, the hero in an act of bravery and personal risk shoots the bad guy. Luke Skywalker blows up the death star, Will Smith bombs the space ship, Captain America and Ironman kill all the invading aliens.

Tears are shed. Worlds are saved. The shooter gets the girl and the glory.

The issue is never the blowing up of bad guy. Rather, the only issue is simply determining who is the bad guy.

In older movies the bad guy could be almost any foreigner.

Twenty years ago a slew of movies cast Islam extremists as the undisputed bad guys.

Fifty years ago communists made easy bad guys.

Old Westerns often depicted Indigenous tribes as the bad guy (ooooof the irony).

But these days? It's getting more and more difficult to find undisputed human bad guys that audiences will not question (thank you globalism).

And yet while we increasingly question blowing up humans (#progress!), instead of oh I don't know, not blowing any body up, we blow up aliens.

Did you notice that in every movie I listed above- Star Wars, Independence Day, The Avengers- the bad guys are literal aliens? 

Convenient that we don't know any aliens. Makes it harder to dispute their evilness.

Isn’t it interesting that while WHO is the bad guy is called into question; the violence itself is not?

Violence remains on the glorified pedestal.

The tricky business of who to cast as the bad guy is not only playing out on the big screen, but in our real life global relations.

Hindsight is always 20/20 as they say, and if we look at the history of our country’s military efforts the last half century- it is not difficult to see the devastating effects of casting entire peoples as "bad guy." (see the US involvement in civil wars across Central and South America like El Salvador and Venezuela, see the Korean War, see the Vietnam War, see the war on drugs, see the war in Afghanistan). 

Looking back, it's clear our labeling of "bad guy" has a long history of horrendous repercussions. 

Because, being the hero means shooting the bad guy.

Is it too much to ask that the question change from "who is the bad guy?" (so we can heroically blow them up) to "do we have to blow someone up to be a hero?"

Can the highest grossing movies not by necessity include guns and bombs?

The next time we want to blow up a “bad guy” - can we take a peek at our long, tragic political history of mis-casting the bad guy?

What do you guys think- why do we do this? Human nature? Patriarchy? What is it with our obsession of heroes blowing up bad guys? What would it take to write a new kind of hero?

(let me know what you think and I’ll include it in next week’s newsletter- like we’re having a conversation! Fun!)

** the State Department's website states "The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace..." That said- is it too simplistic to say that a diplomat's job is to promote peace and a soldier's job is to wage war? Yes of course. It’s way more complicated and nuanced than that. 

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Response’s to Last Week’s Prompt

I so loved reading your responses last week to my prompt- what do you lie about?

Here are a few of our community’s juicy responses:

“Sometimes I don’t speak up about important issues because I don’t want to rock the boat.

I’ll hide my true emotions to keep people around me “Happy”

I feel like I never got to find out who I am I independently from being a mother/wife.

Although I’ve recently left the church and feel so much peace, I have moments of sheer panic, wondering if I made the right decision. Wondering if they’re right and I’m wrong.

Sometimes I’ll have sex even if I don’t want to. Not because I’m forced to but because I feel like it’s my duty. 

I could go on and on. I think the most fascinating thing about all of this is the majority of us are fairly self-aware yet we continue these patterns over and over. It would be so interesting to see if we could truly live a radically honest life. How would change relationships? How would our world change?”

And another email response:

“It had been feeling like a lie for me to go to church lately, so I’ve been pondering ways to show up more as the real honest me and I’ve already implemented a lot of them. 

* I no longer raise my hand to sustain any calling that does not have gender parity. If a woman can’t hold that calling then they don’t get my support. 

* I put on three items of jewelry every Sunday: my cross necklace, a rainbow pin or bracelet, and my “dissent collar” earrings. 

* I will never again talk about God as only He. I always say Heavenly Parents and They. 

* I raise my hand when I feel like I can genuinely and calmly offer a different perspective if the lesson has gotten a little “us vs. them” or “the world is so evil” or other such detours. 

Ways that I still “lie”…

* I pray to “Our Gracious God” instead of just saying “Dear Heavenly Parents” like I do in my own home. 

* I go every Sunday because of my calling as chorister when I would really like to go with my husband to his church more often. 

* I sit there and pretend that patriarchy isn’t KILLING ME. (I think my next step is to sit down with my Bishop and tell him that I think patriarchy is utter nonsense and that this is NOT Gods idea of an authority structure, but man’s.)”

And a few from Substack’s response feature:

“I lie all the time then. I'm an enneagram 9, peace at all cost...many lies. I refuse to tell family when my husband is out of town, because I delight in that time with just myself. It seems as soon as I mention him leaving everyone wants to tell me to fill my time with this or with that, or let's go do such and such. I am not very good at saying no, so I choose to say nothing and avoid having to answer at all.”

“It is scary actually..guilty of saying I am fine, when I am not; coloring my grey hair; smiling when i feel like not; I used to say. "I will pray for you( but then I don't)- i no longer do that.”

Thanks for chiming in! I loved reading your responses!

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