Invincible mean people
A much worse world would be one in which people become invincible by sheer virtue of being evil. Already, really dastardly people like to present themselves as invulnerable, because if they play upon your fears brilliantly enough, they basically are. And in movies, psycho killers never seem to rest. Though they always have some weak spot.
But just imagine a world where rapists and murderers didn’t have any forces of nature working against them; unlike good people, they didn’t need to eat, they didn’t need to sleep, they never got thirsty, never needed to take a bathroom break, and nothing ever scared them. They would be like how celebrities seem, but with an insatiable bloodlust.
That would suck.
Sometimes I think about a character from that awful movie “The Green Mile.” The character’s name is William ‘Wild Bill’ Wharton, and he’s an evil guy. He’s on death row for murder, waiting to “ride the lightning” with a bunch of angry loons, and in the meantime he pees on a guard, steps on a prisoner’s pet mouse, and makes fun of other people for having to go to the electric chair before him.
But the thing that I most remember was the scene where he begs and begs for a moon pie. A moon pie - something we free people take for granted, along with a bunch of other things - would for him be rare treat offering a relief from the disgusting prison food he’s had to shovel down day after day.
Finally, amazingly, he gets the moon pie. But instead of eating it, like a normal person with needs and desires would do in his situation, he chews it up and spits it all over one of the guards.
And I thought, “Wow. What a stupid movie.”
Then I thought, “But wait. Just imagine this in a good movie, and take it seriously for a moment. This Wild Bill guy is so putrid and rotten to the core that rather than eat this food, which probably tastes so good to him now, and makes him feel so happy, he’d rather spit it all over someone. He’d sacrifice what little joy he has to make someone else’s life that much more miserable. And what’s most disturbing about this is that he’s invulnerable. He doesn’t need to eat or taste or experience pleasure or anything. He’s a machine who brings sadness and misfortune to the world.”
I didn’t buy this character at all, because he was so cartoonish and the movie itself was so ludicrious. Yet I think about it sometimes, and ponder how awful it would be if evil people were as invincible as they like to seem.
I mean, when someone is chasing you with a giant knife, trying to kill you for accidentally peeking into their secret lair, are you going to be able to imagine that person ever taking a nap and snoring and slipping out of a hammock? No. They seem more powerful than humans.
But what if they actually were?
6 years ago