Rubén Blades who plays Daniel Salazar on AMC's Fear the Walking Dead, said something really interesting in last night's episode, entitled, "Not Fade Away." After Madison Clark's character returned from her afternoon adventure in which (to her horror) she found evidence that the military "protecting them" was killing innocent Americans, he told her of this story from when he was a boy. The military had come to his village in El Salvador, taken people away, and when he asked his father where they had taken them he was reassured that they would all come home again. He didn't think anything of it until he found them all in the river. His father told him, "Men don't do bad things because they are evil. They do evil out of fear." And then Mr. Salazar said, "My father was wrong. There's no difference between the two."
It's this that I wanted to talk about. At first I thought that Daniel meant there's no difference between evil and fear. However, that didn't make sense. Then another interpretation occurred to me: Daniel was saying that people who commit evil acts out of fear are exactly the same as those who commit evil acts just because, well...they're evil.
Within the framework of The Walking Dead world, I find this thought particularly troubling because what does it say about Rick Grimes? He's our protagonist from the series that launched Fear the Walking Dead, and we ended last season with him doing particularly evil actions out of fear. So really, Rick (who started the series as a hero and with a heart of gold) has made a transformation to being an anti-hero...to essentially being the villain. At least that's the conclusion I'm left with when I consider the wisdom of Daniel Salazar's words.
What do you guys think? Is committing an evil act out of fear any different than committing an evil act because you intended to do so?
In other words, is an evil act evil regardless of intent? Was every Nazi evil because he followed the orders of Hitler? If a guy attacks my wife and I seriously injure him while defending her, is that evil? Yeah, it goes into some real grey areas...
ReplyDeleteI don't see much of a difference.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, am I the only one disappointed with this program? I waited for it with such high expectations but this program is slow...slow...slow. I remember being drawn into the original within five minutes of Rick leaving the hospital in the first episode. This new program isn't really about the walking dead; it seems to be about an over-reaching military. Maybe they don't have a budget for zombie make-up. There are only two more episodes remaining in this first season and I'm considering not continuing with it.
Any opinions?
I'd wait until next week to see if it changes. Usually, the episode right before the season finale (called penultimate episode) is really good. But yeah, the first season has been a little slow (not to mention the fact that labor day caused a two week break in the narrative).
DeleteI loved that line and completely agree--it doesn't matter WHY we do the evil thing, it is still evil. HOWEVER, I think somebody who does the evil thing out of fear MAY be able to be reached and stopped from doing future evil. And Rick HAS crossed the line a few times. He is not a clear white hat character. I think that is why I like the dynamic, is the group has people who will pull others back into line because we all fall down sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI agree it is the same. I understand Rick is losing it right now, but he did need to be whopped up side the head. Sometimes, you need someone else to keep you on the strait path. Hopefully, nobody will need to kill Rick before they knock some sense back into him.
ReplyDeleteI think the justice system disagrees which is why premeditated murder is a greater crime than accidental murder.
ReplyDeleteI pondered this for a bit....and I have to agree. Evil out of fear is still evil. What would Yoda say?
ReplyDeletePeople have killed someone else in fear for their life and it's called self-defense, not evil. Overall this subject is more of a gray area.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing to make a split-second, reflexive decision to hurt or kill someone out of fear, such as in mistaken self-defense cases. But killing or harming someone out of continuous fear, when a person has even a few minutes to reflect, is for me evil.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point. Is acting out of fear evil? Or, are those who commit evil acts just covering up their fear through the evil? It's an interesting question.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is a difference, but we humans are not very strong, and I would not know unless I am in that situation.
ReplyDeleteWould I do anything bad if I were threatened by some one? when I put it this way, no I would not be bad just because I am threatened. It would be like taking bribe. I am pretty sure that I would hang on to my values, even if I am threatened.