Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

As a child, I had a very black-and-white worldview. There were rights and there were wrongs, and I couldn’t understand why people did wrong.

You don’t lie. You don’t act dishonorably. To do and be right, you sacrifice and suffer if necessary. It was all very straight forward. Oh yeah, I must have been a joy–although a very well-behaved one.

I did a lot of reading as a child. I think that probably helped me develop this outlook. Children’s literature and history for kids are not especially conducive to moral ambiguities. The heroes were pretty clear cut.

Now, a couple of decades later, I’m accepting that there isn’t always a right and there isn’t always a wrong. Sometimes there are just choices, and the consequences thereof. Perhaps it’s also a sign of the times, but I credit two TV shows with the crystallization and verbalization of these thoughts. The Wire and Battlestar Galactica are so well-written to this end. BSG, especially, has me agreeing with whoever is speaking at the time.

And through the life and situations presented in these two series, I can see that sometimes, all that’s in front of you is an impossible choice. All you can do is think it through the best you can. A hero is not someone who always makes the right choices. Choices can be so hard now-a-days that it’s heroic to simply be willing to make them–with one’s eyes wide open.

Tags: Governance, Life, TV //