Well, even though we have been exploring our nature since we started to think, I've seen this brought up more commonly nowadays.
here are some examples:
Shojo Kakumei Utena: The swords of Humanity piercing through Anthy, relating back to the crucifiction of Christ.
City of God(film): About a photographer from the slums of Rio De Janero during the 70s. Incredible story on crimes within the poverty of the world.
Slumdog Millionaire: Another example of how humans can mistreat one another.
those are a few, but I want to bring up a few things. This has been going on since the dawn of our existence. But this is simply what makes us human. From the Spanish Inquistion to the Holocaust man has been destroying man for our own set rules that relatively don't make sense.
I pointed this out to a friend, and he said, "well, prejudice is in our blood. Its a part of life. In a way its an indirect form of natural selection."
I see where he's coming from, but I don't find religious killings as natural selection. In my example I told him,
"Well, I think a better example is when you pass a suspicious person on the street on a bad part of town. You instinctively keep away or don't make eye contact. That's like someone passing by a wolf. The wolf may not see you as prey, but you don't know if he doesn't, so you keep away."
But that's completely different than pogrom.
One thing I also think of is that I can be very cold about criminals. Sometimes I believe the world is so rotten, if all the criminals would just die, the world can start to rebuild.
linking back to two things in my mind
1. Death Note: I was always on Light's side for this reason. If I saw a woman about to be raped, and I had his power, I would kill the would be rapists.
Cold as it is, I would probably kill all the criminals I could.
2. Watchmen's Ozymandias: He wanted a different way of world peace. He wanted to destroy(wipe the slate clean), and rebuild with him in power. If I had his intelligence and power I would probably do the same thing.
But, one thing I have noticed from both these characters. They have a God complex. Which in psychology is a red fag of a mental disturbance or even of a sociopath. So by doing this, you are a criminal yourself.
But Light justified it by saying he was God.
Ozymandias' claimed that the world was at peace, there had to be a sacrifice.
But did either really have a right to judge humanity?
So what do you guys think about humanity?
~~
Hmm? Adrian's aim wasn't world domination. His intentions were simply to save the world from nuclear war. It was never his goal to "rebuild [the world] with him in power".
As for your topic question(s), I personally try to distance myself from the rest of humanity and be a bit of cynic and a misanthrope. My attitude towards the rest of the world is passive-aggressive. People can do as they please. It doesn't affect me.
I love my girlfriend.
Well he wanted to save the world, but he also wanted to be at the top of its realm. He is very different from Light, but he has his similarities to him. Like I said, he has a god complex and he wanted to rule in a more indirect way.Hence his love for Egypt and Alexander the Great.
" and so begins my conquest..."
His conquest was over evil. If he DID stand up and take power then he would be destroyed, remember his peace only lasts as long as the world believed Dr. Manhattan was watching. Light tried to be god. Ozymandias tried to be judge/jury/and executioner.
thanks to zyta for the sick sig and avy!
Excuse me...but look at who you're talking to. I've read and studied Watchmen, including the college psycho analysis. Shojo Kakumei Utena and Watchmen are the only thing I really have knowledge of.
Ozymandias' actual motive is and isn't everything we said. In the sense that what we stated is only part of his entire plan. Alan Moore is one of those authors where if you look at everything very carefully, each action and character's expression has a purpose. We could try to intrepret his plan, but remember, we only get half of it, because even Alan Moore said, "I purposelufully created his character so that you really do not know what he is thinking. "
As far as we know, every single little thing that happened could've been his plan, but we won't know, because of Ozymandias' complexity.
But, back to the point, I made it unclear in the begininning, I'm sorry.
If you look back you can't exactly label what he was doing.
It was bad wording of me to make it seem like all he was trying to do was rule the world, that's not what I intended.
What I meant was Ozymandias was everything we said and more, but there must have been a psychological motive inside to be at the top of the world. Not Hitler-esque, but in the sense that everyone looks up to him, his company rules, and he is the most intelligent.
Psychologically, it is common that highly intelligent sociopaths have a God-complex. He has shown evidence that he could be psychologically disturbed, even if its isn't as obvious as The Comedian or Rorschach. And this is proven by the fact he is fine killing people, and justifies himself in his own mind, because he knows his intelligence.
But remember, Ozymandias is the smartest human in the world. Dr. Manhattan has surpassed the human level. And I think Ozy wants to be like Dr.Manhattan also in the sense he wants to be godlike,but he knows he won't.(he even has the equipment for it), but he chooses not to. He decides to find a way for Dr. Manhattan to leave Earth instead.
But at the same time, we don't know for sure. There are reasons to be believe he isn't crazy. He even may have a conscious somewhere nagging at him. The movie doesn't show this, but the comic does.
"Jon, wait, before you leave...I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end."
"In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
"Jon? Wait! What do you mean by..."
(Jon leaves, Ozymandias is disdained. he has a pained expression on his face. His last appearance in the comic).
But remember, we never know. He proved he could act (his fake killer after him). All of it could of been an act, and he could be very satisfied. But you know what? He is the smartest man in the world, we will never know what he is thinking.
(And this is why he's my favorite character)
Last edited by EmoNightmareRose; Apr 15, 2009 at 11:59 AM.
I think that humanity does not know how to exist without entropy or war.
There is always an "evil" somewhere, and maybe it just comes from history that not only America but other countries think "in order for there to be peace, there must be war" thus bringing on this never ending cycle of hate and crime.
I often try to imagine a world without war or evils, but honestly...that's hard to do =\.
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