Some links may be affiliate links. I may earn money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on this site.
Rob Knowlan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sum Sum Summertime
We’re enjoying (well, not me, but -like- everyone else) summer-type weather in the wake of a quasi-celebrated Memorial Day.
Sort of Summer
The Summer Solstice doesn’t come until June but it’s long been held that summertime runs from Memorial Day until Labor Day.
The Jamies – Summertime, Summertime (Audio)
I’m actually sick of talking about COVID19, so let’s ignore the notion that UV light (which is available in abundance on a sunny summer’s day) and heat (also, to my horror, available in abundance during summer-like conditions) will destroy the virus and generally close out the first round of pandemic contagion.
If tyrannical governors and virtue signaling mask-holes can ignore simple facts in order to maintain control over the rest of us, why not just roll with it?
Apart from the undeniable fact that it is essentially unAmerican to cave in to bullies, it’s just tiring to have to deal with the unending onslaught of idiocy. It’s like trying to shovel all the water to one side of your pool. Eventually, you get tired of trying.
It’s better to try to enjoy the change long enough for them to find a way to spoil that, too.
The real trick to defeating all the well-meaning jackwagons is to appear to give in. Once they realize that they’ve finally gotten their way and are now responsible for all the stuff they were trying to cow us into submission on, they will realize that they’re ill-equipped to actually run and maintain all of the things they’ve managed to spoil in order to get where they’ve gotten us.
Just as Socialists eventually run out of everyone else’s money, virtue signallers eventually run out of presumed moral high ground.
Nobody can live in a house of cards indefinitely.
Eventually, their imaginary models collapse under the weight of reality and the rest of us are left to pick up the pieces and try to make something productive out of them. Unfortunately, since these people have no actual sense of responsibility, they never seem to learn the obvious lessons from their shenanigans.
They might slink away in temporary embarrassment but they’ll be right back up on their high horses as soon as someone gets triggered about some other made-up nonsense.
Moral Dissonance
Why good people do bad things | Einar Øverenget | TEDxOslo
I was talking about antiheroes in my previous post. In most cases, the antihero is a basically good person who has been driven to do bad things to bad people.
The Punisher is a great example of this, particularly the way that he was depicted in the Netflix series by Jon Bernthal. Even in his first appearance as the principal antagonist of the second season of Daredevil, the Punisher seems to be a sort of super hitman at first but he turns out to be a man on a mission. Frank Castle is a decorated Marine whose family was killed in a drug sting gone wrong. The cover-up in the wake of his apparent death left him with nothing but a need for vengeance.
In one episode while he’s hunting for one of Marvel’s most famous nobodies, he’s sniping at the car that Daredevil’s legal secretary is trying to drive him to safety in. They’re both fleeing in mortal fear of an unstoppable killing machine.
However, after Daredevil turns him over to the police and the law firm of Nelson & Murdock becomes his defense team, Karen has a chance to talk to Frank. He tells her that she was never in any danger.
Naturally, this is news to her because she was clearly being shot at. Thing is, Frank Castle is a highly skilled Scout Sniper and black operations combatant. He only hits what he’s shooting at and he never shoots at people who he considers innocent.
He knew something about Grotto that Daredevil and his friends did not. That something put Grotto on Punisher’s hit list and Frank is definitely dedicated to finishing any job he starts.
This is what makes him an antihero. Daredevil is a classic hero with a code against killing and a belief that even the worst of people can turn their lives around if they’re just given another chance. Frank tells Daredevil that his way is a half-measure. Frank puts them down and they stay down and never hurt anyone ever again.
It’s hard to argue with such a simple statement. Murdering bad guys is definitely a way to stop their criminal careers. It’s morally dark, dark grey but it’s not entirely unheard of.
Back in Viking days, there was a concept of wergild. They hadn’t invented police at the time, so it was generally accepted that if there was someone who just needed killing, you could pay a certain amount to his family or the feudal authority to whom that person belonged as recompense for the ad hoc execution.
As governments became more regulated, hunting down people who just need killing became the domain of officially commissioned individuals. Eventually, this led to the creation of police forces as we understand them today.
Most people accept that, in modern society, criminals are hunted down and arrested by the police so that they can be prosecuted and sentenced in accordance with legal statutes. Unfortunately, that has a lot of moving pieces with a lot of legal loopholes. In some cases, criminals who are demonstrably guilty still avoid the appropriate sentence because of some technicality in the process.
The intent is to prevent harm to innocent people who are falsely accused of crimes they did not commit. The result is to let people who are guilty as sin go free to continue perpetrating their bad deeds.
This is a popular setup for action movies. Whether it’s the vengeful victim, the fed-up cop or the anti-crime black ops team type of story, we cheer for the guys who have to color outside of the lines to get that one dreadful creep who seems to slither through all the legal loopholes.
We can identify with killing the guy(s) who killed our wife and kids. Who wouldn’t? Even if you could personally never bring yourself to kill someone, you can certainly empathize with the one who does.
This is part of what makes Frank Castle such a compelling character. The guy joined the Marines to serve his country. He was exceptionally good at what he did, despite how horrible it actually is in practice. All he wanted was to come home to his wife and kids and live happily ever after.
Normally, there’s one guy or maybe a guy and his friends, possibly even a whole gang or a corrupt police force to blame for your tragedy. Not so for Frank.
The DA’s office had set up a sting for a drug trafficker named “The Blacksmith”. In order to try to capture this guy, they allowed civilians to remain in the middle of three rival gangs. Frank and his family were minding their own business when the three gangs got spooked and started shooting at each other.
So, instead of one perp (such as the guy who shot Bruce Wayne’s parents) or even a handful (like the guys who killed Alex Murphy and caused him to be made into Robocop), Frank has all three gangs (every last member of each gang), “The Blacksmith” and the DA’s office to seek retribution on.
Even after he finishes this personal mission of vengeance, trouble finds him anyway. He tries to disappear and mind his own business but eventually, he simply has to own it. He’s the best at what he does and there are a lot of bad guys who need to be stopped from hurting good people.
His methods are abhorrent to most of us and well beyond the scope of what any of us could reasonably attempt to do even if we were inclined to try.
Even so, we can empathize to some extent.
The idea that someone would be out there putting bad guys down like bugs that needed swatting appeals to us at a base level. If it doesn’t, we probably wouldn’t watch the show.
My own antiheroes have a variety of reasons for skirting the rules. As usual, there is personal tragedy involved. This doesn’t excuse vigilantism, breaking rules or having flagrant disregard for the lives of others but it does tend to explain it.
Even so, explanations are not always justifications. Meirhe’s friend, Ric, explains this to her in The Sentinels: New Blood…
No, the things they did to you are not bullshit but the thinking that led to that absolutely is. It’s okay for me to be a monster because someone hurt my feelings or spoiled my evil plans or cost me money or whatever the hell. Who cares? Reasons and rationale don’t amount to a hill of rat shit. ~Captain Ric Stiles
We have laws and procedures for handling bad guys. Vigilantism is attractive on the surface because there are exceptions in which bad guys slip through the cracks to avoid justice, but what is there to stop the vigilante from going right off the deep end?
In Daredevil’s case, it’s his own conscience and the burden of Catholic guilt to keep him on the straight and narrow. As the Punisher said to him, you’re just one bad day away from becoming me. Even so, Frank still has a very concrete way of drawing the line. If you’re innocent, he’ll leave you alone. If you’re guilty, he’ll hunt you to the ends of the earth and kill you.
It’s interesting to play with this among my own characters. Basically decent people are driven to the point where they take extreme measures to address the wrongs they’ve witnessed or the harm they’ve suffered. Watching that unfold makes for interesting storytelling.
In My Head For A While
My writing process is such that a story will be in my head for awhile, and I’ll start making notes on my computer. I create character sheets that include a character’s past, fears, goals and ambitions. ~Tracie Peterson
The Sentinels started off as a story with my kids as the characters. It was a pet project for our own enjoyment.
As with most side projects, I got busy with “reality” and never finished the story. Eventually, it became the only productive thing I had left.
I’m feeling a lot better than I did in the final quarter of 2018. I’m feeling relatively better than I did for the entirety of 2019. Unfortunately, breathing is still somewhat labored at times and bending is an invitation to tortuous pain. This generally limits the type of job I might seek.
A desk job would suit, but they’re in fairly short supply in my area. Even if they weren’t, we’re still in lockdown and only “essential” businesses are permitted to be open. I’ve already griped about this at length but it is what it is.
There are a variety of considerations involved in whatever type of job I might seek. Telecommuting to an IT place would be great but most of them still haven’t figured out that we’re in the 21st Century.
The logical alternative is to do something “freelance“. However, this depends on the freelance opportunities not being complete bullshit. Sadly, the majority of posted requests for work are just nonsense.
The logical alternative to that is to get these stories out of my head. Producing a work of fiction is no easy thing, but neither is working twelve hours a night in a warehouse or factory. It is something that I am uniquely qualified to do, so I’m doing it because most of the alternatives seem to be closed to me for the time being.
I have a rare opportunity to get this done before things get tight again, so I’m all in.
It doesn’t look like I’m doing anything, but I’m actually doing quite a lot. Whether it’s a work of fiction or a computer program, the evidence is hard for others to see. Even if I walk people through everything I’ve got going on, they rarely see the value of it. As such, I’ve stopped trying to explain.
Just leave me alone and let me get this done. That’s all I’ve got to say for my efforts. Sounds bad but I’m trying very hard to make good.
Only time will tell how successful I’ll be at this.
It’s not “technically” Summer, but it’s hot and it’s after Memorial Day. I hope you’re enjoying the change in weather even if I’m not. The best thing about the beginning of Summer is that it means we’re that much closer to the end of Summer. Enjoy it while it lasts…