Myth anyone? A little rumination on Vader. and the American concept of evil.

 Evil, American style.

And, yet, as the Star Wars epic progressed, the character of Luke's Daddy became far more complex, ending up as more of an anti-hero.  We Americans believe that there is no true black (despite the color of that absolutely FABULOUS cape), and no true white.  Sorry Malcolm.  There is only truly a shade of grey.  In other words--some good, and some bad.  For some reason, Americans don't really have a talent for pure characterizations, and so we seem to gravitate towards figures like Butch Cassidy and Sundance (who, if memory serves me, was from New Jersey!).

I mean, who can resist Paul and Bob?  Come on people!  Witness yet another creation of a complex myth...I mean can these blue-eyed strangers truly be evil?

Honestly Sundance, it's the fall that's gonna kill 'ya!  And yet, these were outlaws--perhaps even killers of men.

So, who in our brief history of American time could be called "good"?  Traditionally, there are the tried and true favorites, such as Abe Lincoln and George Washington.  I feel a tad arrogant making such characterizations, but this is a personal blog/statement, and not precise historical truth (if indeed there is such a thing).  And, mythology is full of complex lessons and morality plays, so perhaps it's alright to put down my less than humble ruminations on symbology, as I shall do occasionally, for I have a deep fascination with faery tales--of all kinds.

Thus, in the interests of being fair, Abe Lincoln wanted to ship African Americans off to Liberia at one point (did we forget that?), rather than living in a multi cultural society

George Washington owned slaves, that were only freed upon his death.  Now, I know we didn't forget that!

Notice the common denominator here? Slavery, the American nightmare;  the American blight.  No, our nation was not the only one to practice it (lest we forget Rome), but we were certainly among the latest.  Slavery also added to our strange brand of racism and injustice, that only seemed to grow more virulent after the end of the Civil War.  

I guess the reality is as far as American heroes are concerned they are truly more of an anti-hero. But people are complex obviously,.

For our concept of evil is Americans we really have had only a very few men and women who qualify. For example Charles Manson Ted Bundy and of course the son of Sam. But for us true evil came in the form of war in 1941 December 7 to be exact. Of course I refer not only to world war two but Adolf Hitler and his band of buddies noun of course as the national Socialist party.

So what do we define as evil? Let me tell you a little story: its story that takes place in the final days of World War II, when Adolf Hitler was in his bunker. Hitler was by now contemplating suicide. But he was unsure of which method would be fastest and perhaps the most certain.

This he had his henchmen take out his favorite dog, a German Shepherd named Blondie. Who by the way, I just gave birth. She was taken away from her puppies and she was fed a cyanide capsule very much like the one that Hitler had given out like party gifts to his favorite favorite birthday guests. He wanted to make sure that it was a lethal dose so he had the new mother murdered by shoving a pill down her throat, leaving the new puppies…? The pill worked and Hitler duly shoved one of those nasty bastards in his mouth, and put a bullet into his brain. Oh! At the same time Hitler made sure that his lover Eva Braun committed suicide in a similar way.

I believe the story, displays intimately how evil dies dies dies. True evil cannot die alone, it Hass to take victims with it.

For me the story illustrates that which Americans in particular hold to be especially evil. Cruelty to small things cruelty to helpless, all of this praying on the innocent equals not only a destructive personality but a  dangerous  one.

I will be riding more on this nasty little Austrian later as World War II is a particular passion of mine but I think now I would like to concentrate on the American antihero for a time. In this case I’m speaking about the original mercury seven astronauts. I’m also referring to the subsequent Apollo missions. So perhaps it’s time to extend our historical inquiries into the astrophysical realm.