“But if I had been the one to face Saavedro, if I had seen the life my sons so carelessly destroyed, would I have left him stranded and alone? Would I have sacrificed his dreams to save my own?” – Atrus, Myst III: Exile

The individual's right to life should never be involuntarily sacrificed for the good of the majority. – Caleb Allen

Perhaps the question of sacrificing innocent people to save other innocent people is an easy question you have no trouble with. Let's blur the lines a little farther. What about killing innocent people in order to bring justice to the guilty? What about strangers caught unsuspecting in the crossfire? Suppose the man you're after will kill thousands if you don't stop him, and in order to stop him you yourself must kill innocent people. Can the deaths of few be balanced against the lives of many?

I’m sure most of you have experienced a scene similar to the following: the good guys’ cover is blown, and they’re running for their lives from any number of villains, firing super cool machine guns, or super cool something-else. Many of us judge how good a movie is by how believable the chase scene is, how cool the weapons are, or how sensible the protagonist’s escape from incredible odds is. If a character hesitates or gets distracted experts on such protocol are known to stand in their seats and yell “Shoot them! Shoot them!” The more bad guys die in the chase scene the better the scene is. They can be killed by a myriad of different methods - run over by trucks, thrown off a cliff, shot or blasted by various methods - and we cheer for every one of them.

A commonly seen trend in modern films and books is good vs. evil portrayed as clear black and white. A very good example is the Redwall books. Some animals are good and some are evil. Even though the weasels and ferrets are as mistreated as the mice and shrews there is never any hope of salvation for them. There is nothing that can be done with them except to kill them all. Somehow exterminating all of the “evil” species will rid the world of evil. Far too often we see human beings depicted the same way.

Wars are not fought except at the expense of the loss of thousands of human lives on both sides. Innocent, ambitious, deluded, and otherwise unconcerned human beings kill and are killed at the pleasure of those who give them orders. The reasons for a young man to enlist anywhere, under anyone, are many and varied. Some have nowhere else to go. Some are patriots. Some are idealists. Some want the glamor. Some want the thrill.

Idealists can be deluded by anyone, the good guys or the bad guys. When it’s kill or be killed it’s not a good time to start questioning your orders or the motives behind those orders.

“You fought? You killed? Then how are we different?” – Doctor Who: The Doctor’s Daughter

When the good guys take out an enemy base they’re not just removing a strategical point. They’re killing everyone inside, and most of those people are no more guilty than they are. Such is the price of war. Good and evil aren’t black and white, they're grayscale. The good guys are only good as long as we sympathize with their viewpoint.

And so the question is, can you kill to achieve your dreams? If the achievement of your goal involves the destruction of innocent or ignorant people can you do it and call it right? If you can't stand by and let an innocent person die for the sake of the greater good then how can you kill innocent people to achieve that same goal?

Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. – 1 Chronicles 22:8

Thanks for posting this, Katie!

You're welcome. It was late, I was bored, I thought "Hey, isn't my article next?"

I need a grammar Nazi for this one. Some of those sentence are either brilliant or utter nonsense.

Oh, butter-colored Vanya, I was hence summoned to be thy grammar Nazi by one Bethany Faith, for she didst say you were in dire need of one such as I. But finding it long, tedious, taking much time, and over all useless (for my suggestions have never been challenged, though I do not mean a brag) to quote each change which is desirable, I must implore thee to allow me to take the liberty and make the changes directly without- Oh, forget this. Translation: I'm lazy. Can I just edit your post instead of quoting all the changes that need to be made? If it's something big like an entire sentence I won't change it and will quote.

Thy humble servant,
Katarina

In the words of my dad: It's that bad, huh?

Yes, you may, and thank you kindly for undertaking such a daunting task.

Uh... let's just go with "I'm lazy."

Edited, all grammar-Nazi stuff. Made two bolded notes for you too.

*hugs the Grammar Nazi*

I fixed the second note. I wasn't sure what was going on with the first one, it now reads "Must kill innocent people." Does that fix whatever problem was there?

Thanks so much!

It did. The problem was you were using "killing" in general when I was pretty sure you were still talking about folks who had done no wrong. Just wasn't clear. Now it is!

No prob. If I'm allowed to direct-edit I would help out with the blog posts a lot more. It's fun.

Well, you can always just check and make sure the author doesn't mind direct editing. I'd prefer direct editing than none at all, personally.

I'll do that.

Kiddo, you are more than welcome to ask people if you can direct edit.

Val just "Kiddo"ed me.

I'm just afraid to ask things of people who... you know... actually exist. Outside my head. IRL.

I saw a traditional way of doing things that made sense and thought that if I was inconvenienced by it it was my own fault and I shouldn't bother others. Obviously, I never sat done and looked at my train of thought rationally.

Is it bad that I kiddo'd you?

It's HW, Katty Roy! We like being asked things.

Nope. I'm just not used to being "kiddo"ed by someone under 40.

Are you serious? I kiddo all kinds of people.

Then I should hang around you more.

Oh, is that where it came from! Jennifer calls Chris kiddo all the time, and at one point I was just kind of giving her this look because I rarely use that term...

(You know you're a crazy fantasy writer when your friend's habits rub off on your characters.)

*laughs * Guilty. The term has floated around the forum quite a bit.

*clears throat and returns high jacked thread to Katie *

And it's up! Thanks again for the editing, Kat.

Awesome, Katie. I came in to remind you, and you already had it done. Thanks!