In most action movies, the Hero kills the Villain

[CT_Progressive]

Given, there are a few action movies out there (mostly the G and PG ones) where the Hero captures and imprisons the villain, but in the vast, vast, majority of action movies (which are PG-13 or R), it is commonly accepted that the Hero kills the Villain.

Examples: Star Wars movies, Lethal Weapon movies, Die Hard movies, every Steven Seagal movie pretty much, etc.

Now, in many cases, the movie depicts the villain as someone who has committed such horrible crimes that the audience will tolerate the Hero killing them. For example, the audience is unlikely to tolerate the Hero killing the Villain if the Villain is depicted as only embezzling some money from their job. Usually, the villain has murdered, raped, mass-murdered, or attempted to take over the world or some such act.

Regardless, many of us here on DU are generally against the Death Penalty, no matter what the crime, yet its pretty clear that audiences around the world (and including DUers) like to see the Hero of the movie "off" the bad guy.

So, my questions to you all are:

1) Don't you sometimes feel satisfaction with the death of an "evil person" (the bad guy) at the hands of "justice" (the good guy) ?

2) Do you think that there could exist an evil so immense and so pervasive, that jailing it simply would not end the threat it poses to society, and that the only way to remove the threat is to kill it?


I'll give my answers first.

1) Yes, while I am against the Death Penalty in all circumstances, watching the good guy cap the bad guy is satisfying to me.

2) Yes, I think that one of the greatest evils is the corruption of the mind thru lying and hateful speech. I think that while Free Speech is a fundamental and essential part of a free society, I feel that speech designed solely to deceive with the intent to harm is a threat to freedom and since imprisonment cannot stop that person from continuing that speech, the only true way to remove that threat is to kill the speaker.

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Yum yum

:popcorn:

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. "imprisonment cannot stop that person from continuing that speech" - why not?

[CT_Progressive]

3. They can write books, spread the hate/harm to prisoners, staff

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It's fairly easy to stop them writing books

and choose staff that aren't gullible. If you really think they would pervert other prisoners, then you put them in solitary.

[CT_Progressive]

5. And take away their ability to write letters, tap out morse code on the wall, etc.

It gets to the point where to stop it, we need to inflict cruel and inhuman punishment on them, which honestly isn't any better than death.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. No, it needn't be cruel and inhuman

You just censor the letters. That's not cruel and inhuman. Everything I've proposed so far is much better than death. For instance, it's reversible.