Should you choose reason or morality? What role does human nature play in this? What exactly is human nature? The film seems to have created a paradox, an unsolvable ultimate mystery. But is it really so?
What is morality
? Morality generally recognized by society refers to the general way of life behavior, just like Trinity said to Jackson's wife as normal person, normal person usually has a vague standard, but this vague scale is not large, Jackson His initial actions, before raising his level of abuse, indicated that he was not the normal person. And from his wife's mouth, we can know that even a normal person doesn't always follow this so-called morality, so normal is just a moment and not a lifetime. The standard of normal will change constantly, whether from individuals or groups, just like the beliefs of this terrorist, and the soldiers exported by the United States, in their group, they are a normal person, but there is no single standard here, it can be seen that Morality is not truth.
Emotion
Jackson's care for his family is very affectionate, and even when he describes the joy of the birth of a child, everyone will envy him; but it is different when he treats terrorists. Cut off his wife's throat and plausibly, determined to reach out to the child for answers. It can be said that this person's feelings can be very infectious at times, but can also become cold and ruthless at once. His feelings for people will be extremely changed due to people, events, circumstances and relationships, whether the other party is a man or a woman, an adult or a child. The role of emotion here is merely a tool of torture, a product of logic.
Belief
The terrorists did this series of things in the name of the sacred cause, which led to what happened later that he expected. What he actually did was to threaten the lives of tens of millions of people in his own country in exchange for the safety and rights of the people of his faith. Because his beliefs tell him that some people's lives are more worthy of safety and others are less important, the only difference here is belief or not; let's take a look at Jackson again, his brutal killing of terrorists and their families was based on His duty, and his duty is based on his profession and the existential situation he is in, and the lives of tens of millions of Americans in this matter. The law doesn't apply here, as Trinity's boss told her
"if the bomb goes off, the damn constitution doesn't exist".
So Jackson can disregard legal and moral norms to act arbitrarily. It was his duty to tell him that the lives of the many were more important than the lives of this few. This is the paradox that has been highlighted, under which Trinity, Jackson and the audience will hesitate, because of the pull of morality, law, human nature, etc., we cannot make a decision. Looking at Jackson's back, he has obtained the highest level of permission of the country to do such a thing, then this paradoxical choice represents the will of the country, and the country built on the basis of democratic elections represents the will of the people. What will be lost at this time is the lives of the people, which shows that the people have made the right choice. But is it really so? When the terrorists had a video of the president talking to the president, they asked the president to agree to withdraw the financial assistance to the puppet government and withdraw the troops. However, at this time, the high-level representative as the president's spokesperson did not notify the president, but directly refused the request. This shows that the president himself or It is said that the rulers of this country regard the possession of resources and dominance of other countries as more important than the lives of tens of millions of people in their own country. Therefore, at this time, the leaders are contrary to the interests and needs of the people, and democratic elections do not reflect the will of the people. , and cannot even protect people's lives, indicating that the so-called democracy itself needs to be seriously questioned.
The wife of the human
terrorist asked the people present when she was brought in,
"Are you human?"
In her eyes, such abuse of her husband was already inhumane, even though she hadn't seen her husband's condition with her own eyes when she said this, she just felt the environment and atmosphere at that time; When Trinity was asked to bring in the terrorist's children, of course she realized what it meant, and Jackson also said,
"You're the only one with a conscience here, and if you can do it, anyone can do it.
" Trinity is here playing a role that is at least human in American society, a bottom line of conscience. Everyone except her has lost their bottom line and can't find the standard of humanity. Only Trinity is the only one among them. s answer. Let's see how Trinity answered
"We can't do this, we are all human, let the bomb go off."
Human nature chooses to explode, which means that human nature doesn't consider the number (even if it is ten million and two All children are Americans), what she cares about is the two innocent lives in front of her, not the lives of tens of millions of people (both old and young) who are also determined by her. It can be said that when it comes to human nature, the starting point is still feelings, and both of them are women. From Jackson's answer to Trinity, we can see that due to the division of his own feelings, he could not judge a unified standard, and he was eager to get the answer from the only woman here, that is to say, the mother or motherhood in the face of the child is human nature basic criteria for judgment.
However, no matter from which angle it is measured, the paradox raised above is still not completely resolved. Is the life of the few more important or the life of the majority? And can the so-called human nature disregard the lives of most people?
Let's put this aside, let's analyze it from another angle, and maybe find the answer.
From the previous discussion, we can see that morality is a relative artificial standard. Whether our behavior is moral or not depends on the attitude of the vast majority of people. How can we make judgments based on this moral standard? ? That is the inertia formed from childhood education and daily behavior training.
Emotions can be divided in Jackson, or they can be named human nature in Trinity, but in the final analysis, it is still a subjective feeling of life in a specific environment.
Faith is pushed to extremes by terrorists. Trinity said that he had read the Islamic classic "Koran".
"Allah blesses the good, and she admires." The
terrorists say,
"Allah bless the righteous battle."
I think They are all right, but who exactly defines goodness and justice?
The tone of the film basically denies these three, and pines its hopes on human nature, but human nature does not give an answer to the paradox in the end, just like the end of the film, it tortures everyone.
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This series of questions will be explained from a Buddhist standpoint. If you think the answer is very Important, then it's best to keep looking down.
Buddhism itself is different from other religions, and even Buddhism does not recognize itself as a religion. There are many complex cultural issues involved here that will not be repeated here.
Looking at the contradictions reflected in this story from the perspective of Buddhism is not insoluble, but the way to solve the problem is not to give a standard answer, but to calmly see the real existence behind all these phenomena. .
First, let's analyze the three aspects that are denied by the film's tone.
Morality, emotion and belief, these three seem to be brought out by people, and thus have an impact on external actions. But from the perspective of Buddhism, these three just prove that people are influenced by the environment and cannot freely exercise judgment and act. After all, what is the environment? How does it work on people?
The generation of the environment and its effect on people are entirely based on the location of the six human faculties, namely eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. These six faculties come into contact with the six external objects, namely form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma. The six consciousnesses are produced, namely eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and consciousness. These simple six consciousnesses are then repeatedly judged and processed by the sixth consciousness to form many concepts, feelings, and thoughts. And emotions are generated from this, but we are not able to perceive a single element of these six senses, but from parents, school, to grow up and enter the society, they are constantly instilled, so that you are accustomed to the inherent moral norms , emotional norms and even belief norms, thus forming your thinking patterns, language patterns and behavior patterns. In this film, we can clearly see that these people with distinct personalities have formed different thinking patterns and behavior patterns precisely because they have gone through different training processes. And the contradiction arises from here.
It is very easy to judge the human nature here. The so-called human nature in the film also does not go beyond the scope of the six senses. It is still an inherent model based on emotion. Once it is formed, it is difficult to freely surpass it. Trini The reason why Ti made such a choice is based on this model, based on her understanding of motherhood, whether mentally or emotionally, because she has not really experienced motherhood, the existence and birth of life. feel.
Therefore, everyone in this film, their cognitive judgments are based on such a model, and the common point is that the establishment and application of these models are dominated by the sixth consciousness, that is, roughly speaking, Brain awareness, brain judgment, or logical judgment, whether the logic is rational or emotional.
So let's take a look at the paradox. The point of the paradox is that if I choose between the two, what is the answer? The reason why no answer can be given here is that the question itself has a two-choice (premise) trap, that is, we must choose one of them as our answer, and this dichotomy is based on a dualistic worldview. of. Either good or evil, right or wrong, good or bad... We make such judgments all the time, and when the film throws this question to us, when our modes are determined by a few characters in the film. When we show it, when we face life with our life and cannot choose just for the sake of profit, we see our own boundaries, see morality, emotion, belief, humanity, and even logic. border. The emergence of this boundary can no longer allow us to deny or ignore its existence for various reasons, so we will ask in deep contemplation, what else exists outside this boundary?
This question seems to be more important than the answer to the paradox, but it is also not a standard answer that can be given in words. Everything needs to be experienced, felt, and realized with your own life. the truth.
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