English
01/10/2016
Philosophically Unskilled
Watchmen is a historiographical meta-fiction novel based in the United States of America during the Cold War, the mid nineteen eighties. The concept of the story is that individuals have turned to costumed vigilante crime fighting as a way to combat the inability of the societal systems in place to reap appropriate retribution upon criminals. Although at the time the story of the novel itself is actually occurring costumed vigilantism has been banned by a government bill known as the Keene Act, there still exist many ‘ex-masks’, and some of the masks never quit with the Keene Act, instead these few continue to reign down justice upon the scum of the country and defy the government mandate. Rorschach is one such man, who vows never to compromise “not even in the face of Armageddon” (Watchmen 402).
As the tale continues the reader encounters Adrian Vaidt, the first mask to out his identity to the world and build a multi-billion dollar enterprise out of his own image. Vaidt spends millions of dollars funding research into an infinite energy source in a front which he suggests to the world is an attempt to eliminate that which the United States and Soviet Union are about to go to (nuclear) war over: resources. Vaidt’s true intent however is to blow up New York by teleporting a giant sentient monstrosity into the city. The instability of the teleportation technique is what causes the explosion, and after the blast clears there is a massive octopus-like creature, which looms over the remaining skyscrapers, and is wreaking havoc upon the rest of the city. The world in general, not understanding where this beast did or could have come from, assumes it is a being of extraterrestrial nature. Quickly realizing that the world has bigger problems than communists and democrats: the United States and the Soviet Union suspend their feud in order to unite against this grand new threat. This suspension is what prevents nuclear war between the two countries, which would have undoubtedly resulted in holocaust and the annihilation of the human race. As it turns out, Vaidt had predicted this result to the catastrophe. Peace was the hidden agenda of his hidden agenda. He sacrificed millions to save billions, and the entirety of the blame (of all those deaths) was laid not upon he who engineered the proceedings, and Vaidt thus suffers no retribution for the extinguishment of millions of human lives. Is what Vaidt did, killing millions of people, justified in the face of the greater evil of holocaust? It certainly is. Vaidt exercised an ancient philosophical technique known as ‘The Noble Lie’.
“In politics, a noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly told by an elite to maintain social harmony” (Wikipedia Noble Lie). Vaidt, as a billionaire captain of industry is certainly to be considered as an ‘elite’, and he fabricates a massive untruth about the slaughter of millions of New Yorkers, which ultimately serves to maintain the social harmony of the world. There is a great deal of disharmony between the Americans and the Soviets at this time and if the conflict escalates anymore then the doom of the world is surely at hand. Vaidt’s conspicuous actions, although on the surface brutal, savage and completely unethical; underneath that grimy surface show their true nature as altruistically brilliant and utterly ethical. His lie is thus a noble one. If there were an alternative solution to the problem at hand, then his actions would no longer be justified, but as Vaidt so gracefully puts it: “both sides realized the suicidal implications of nuclear conflict, yet couldn’t stop racing towards it lest their opponents should overtake them. Afraid of their weapons, afraid of losing them, afraid to blink or turn their backs” (Watchmen 369) it becomes clear that the political situation and stress becomes more and more real and more and more serious every day regardless of what is said or what is done or what is known about the outcome should the war jump off. The world has come far past the critical point where they could have turned around, and it is nothing short of a miracle that Vaidt is able to do just that at this point in the events, so far after that critical moment.
Immanuel Kant, a brilliant eighteenth-century philosopher, argues that lying is absolutely wrong in all circumstances. He claims that human beings are given free will and rational thought processes for a reason, this reason being to make their own choices about their own lives in the best way they know how with the information they possess. It is in this sense that lying becomes not only a disservice to the humanity of the person telling the lie, but also to the humanity of he/she/they whom are being lied to. Therefore, of one’s self, to lie is to attempt to influence the choices of others and as such is degrading to one’s own character and dignity. Of the other, to lie to, is to deprive him/her/them of the accurate information required to make an informed and rational decision (SCU Para. 4-5). I do not presume to state that as great a man as Kant was ‘wrong’ per say, only that he seems to have either not taken a count of all the necessary data regarding the matter, or that he would appear to have grossly overestimated the capabilities of the human race, which would be an easy lapse to have back in the eighteenth-century, before globalization had occurred. It is true that every human being, to some degree or extent, has free will (whether exercised or not). It is also true that rational thought walks hand-in-hand with that same concept of free will. Therefore is it not accurate to agree with Kant that lying is wrong, based on his reasoning? No, it is no longer accurate to do so. By the mid-eighties setting in Watchmen globalization of resources, commodities, people, and of course feuds has already taken vast steps of progress in the international community. There are now either single persons or small groups of persons whom hold an alarming amount of control over gigantic portions of the world’s surface. Nixon is in control, and speaks for more than two hundred million people; not all of whom agree or are on board with his claims, motives, agendas et cetera. The Communist Soviet government, likewise spoke for nearly three hundred million people. Is this then, not already contradicting the standards set forth by Kant? Unless everyone a person ‘speaks for’ is in agreement with that which is being spoken, then what right does the speaker have to continue to not only speak, but also make decisions (huge, life changing decision) on behalf of these persons? Yet we see it going on regardless and the result will be catastrophic, the United States government “have become intoxicated with Omnipotence-by-Association” (Glass 3) in the wake of their ‘American-God’ Dr. Manhattan and have begun to “push their unearned advantage until American influence comes uncomfortably close to key areas of Soviet interest” (Glass 3). This, more than, suggests that the American government is pushing for war. Perhaps not directly, but they are pushing for more control of the world than they have any right to, and also pushing for control in their own interests (in other words, this push for control is not the will of the people). It is difficult to imagine how one (Nixon) could fathom the push for control not leading to all out nuclear war. Nonetheless he (Nixon) is permitted to keep making decisions for his two hundred million constituents, likely because of widespread propaganda which tricks the Americans into thinking his way is the right way. Now, after much digression I conclude that Vaidt’s lie is now one-hundred-fold justified, as it serves to (at the very least) undermine the authority of the out-of-control superpower The United States of America.
I will reiterate: “In politics, a noble lie is a myth or untruth, often, but not invariably, of a religious nature, knowingly told by an elite to maintain social harmony” (Wikipedia Noble Lie). Nixon’s lies (propaganda) to the American people, serve to enforce his imperialistic agenda which is the exact opposite of ‘maintaining social harmony’ and is therefore unjustified. Vaidt’s lie (the indirect lie concerning the nature of the ‘alien’ beast) is to correct this social disharmony created by the true lie(s) of Nixon and in correcting the disharmony, accordingly creates harmony. Vaidt’s lie is thus just.
Works Cited
Glass, Milton. “Dr. Manhattan: Super-Powers and the Superpowers.” Watchmen. New ed. Alan Moore. New York: DC Comics, 2014. 139-142. Print.
Mazur, Tim C. Santa Clara University. Santa Clara University. N.d. Web. 15/03/2015 http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v6n1/lying.html
Moore, Alan, Dave Gibbons, John Higgins. Watchmen. New ed. New York: DC Comics, 2014. Print.
“Noble Lie.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 14/02/2008. Web. 15/03/2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_lie
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