Flyboys. A story of Honor

Honor. If you haven’t seen this movie its about a small group of american pilots who go over to France to fly planes for them during World War I. In this movie there is a scene where one of the American’s planes goes down. the man survives the crash and is celebrating till one of the German planes comes over head and shoots the American on the ground, breaking an unwritten code of honor for air warfare. When the Americans get back the captain is furious. Even in the vicious act of war there is a level of integrity that we find just. I find it interesting that while we do vicious act in order to keep our humanity there is a level of integrity that needs to be there in order for us to like it. If a movie came out where the celebrated form of war was vicious and non-merciful then everyone would hate it. but there are so many war movie out there and both hero and villain are fighting but the villain is the one that is inhuman in the way he kills. Why? have you ever stopped to wonder why? even in the inhuman act of killing there is a sense of dignity that needs to be perserved. Is there a code inside us that decides what’s just and what’s not? or is it something that God created in us? or is it just the way that society has reared us? I pose this last question because i have recently questioned the idea of an inner code of conduct when i heard about a tribe in the Amazon Jungle where in society the highest virtue was betrayal. You can imagine how the story of Judas’ betrayal went over when missionaries found them. He was the greatest hero in the Bible rather than a villain. I ask again. is this “Inner code of justice” that we cling to socially defined or is it created in us?

~ by rae14 on November 18, 2008.