This is something I?ve been wanting to do for some time. I will admit that I never really heard of the Watchmen series until the recent live-action film was marketed. But after watching both the film and the comics they were adapted from, I was obsessed. There were just so many themes and ideas and issues presented in this series to talk about and think about.
Now of course this discussion will contain spoilers for both the comics and film, so you have been warned.
Before we start I would like to admit that I am merely a fan of the series and the stuff I?m about to talk about has probably been said a hundred time before by a hundred people who are far more qualified to talk about this stuff than me. Nevertheless this is my take on these issues and I will try to give it my best shot.
But if you think these things have been done better by others, then I apologise in advance.
Firstly, we will discuss the issues surrounding the one lone superhuman in the series:
Dr Manhattan.
For those of you unfamiliar, Dr Manhattan began life as Jon Osterman, the son of a clockmaker in an alternate version of history where costumed crime-fighters had existed. After graduating from university he became part of the world?s early attempts at nuclear physics departments. One day he was locked inside one of the devices there and was torn apart by radiation. Later on he is able to reconstruct himself and now had godlike abilities.
There is very little that this character cannot do. He can teleport, create things almost out of thin air and we even get hints that he can create life in some form. He is, for all intents and purposes, a god among men.
Now a character with godlike abilities would raise plenty of issues by itself, but Manhattan is also an asset of the United States, developing new technologies and participating in the Vietnam War, which was won for the USA in this world because of him.
The first thing I?d like to discuss with this character is the notion that if he is a character with godlike ability, or even a god itself, then he was one created by humankind and it?s creations. This raises the issue I have long held to be true. That the divine is a creation not of powers above, but something we as humans have made for ourselves and convinced ourselves is true. ?God made by humans? instead of ?humans made by god?.
Godlike power and knowledge opens up many moral discussions but the biggest one of all as far as I am concerned is whether or not such a character as Manhattan can even be subject to morality like the rest of us.
Consider. We draw our morality from the powers that be. Our religions, our governments, our families. Morality is something which is inherently given to us by those above. Now obviously we consider morality a good thing and I?d never say otherwise, regardless of who gives it to us. But Manhattan has none above him. He is essentially all-powerful. What reason does he have to follow any sense of morality at all? He can?t be threatened, or coerced or manipulated.
Also, a bit off-topic here but, as I have stated many times in posts like these, I am an atheist. I do not believe in god. However, if I DID believe and was asked by other atheists or intellectuals why an all-powerful and all-knowing god would allow the world?s tragedies to occur, my answer would be simple:
?He doesn?t care.?
God, if he truly existed as people describe, would probably have the same attitude towards human as Dr Manhattan does. A being who is so far above and beyond everyone like us that he simply cannot connect to us on any level. It?s like when you walk through a park and step on an ant, or blade of grass. You never give those things a moment?s thought. Because you, as a human, are so my greater, bigger and more powerful than those things beneath you that their end would not move you to any degree.
Which brings me back to our discussion regarding Manhattan and morality. Manhattan is a person who is so far beyond the things we can understand that morality, at least our kind of morality, would have no bearing on him. If he were to, on a whim, wipe out an entire city of people, it would not matter to him. It would be like one of us stepping on an ant hill. It?s a matter of scale. To us, stepping on an ant hill would not move us because we know of the ?big picture?, the world around us and the more important things in it. But him? He sees the ?bigger picture?, the whole universe and beyond. He understands that in the truly grand scheme of things, it probably wouldn?t matter of the whole human race vanished, because we are just one tiny blue world in a vast wondrous universe.
Now fans of the series will be quick to defend his actions at this time. You see, Manhattan has the power to see into the future and know exactly what will happen and when. No variation, no choice in the matter, if he see what he?s supposed to do he will do it. So his lack of interest in humanity could be attributed not to genuine apathy, but to his merely playing out the script.
But even taking this into account, we have no attempt on his part to even try and defy this so-called ?set future?. Has he tried in the past and failed? Has he given up on the prospect of a future you shape for yourselves? We never get any answers to these questions but it does give us a very interesting situation. Dr Manhattan, the closest thing to a god any mortal person will ever experience in this fictional world, is just as powerless as the rest of us and is, when constrained by the set history before him, little more than a puppet.
Well, that?s about everything I have to say on this character. I hope you all weren?t too bored reading all this.
Next time I will be discussing the issues surrounding the character of Rorschach.
P.s: I wasn?t quite sure which section of the forums to put this discussion in so if you think it belongs somewhere else, please let me know.
Now of course this discussion will contain spoilers for both the comics and film, so you have been warned.
Before we start I would like to admit that I am merely a fan of the series and the stuff I?m about to talk about has probably been said a hundred time before by a hundred people who are far more qualified to talk about this stuff than me. Nevertheless this is my take on these issues and I will try to give it my best shot.
But if you think these things have been done better by others, then I apologise in advance.
Firstly, we will discuss the issues surrounding the one lone superhuman in the series:
Dr Manhattan.
For those of you unfamiliar, Dr Manhattan began life as Jon Osterman, the son of a clockmaker in an alternate version of history where costumed crime-fighters had existed. After graduating from university he became part of the world?s early attempts at nuclear physics departments. One day he was locked inside one of the devices there and was torn apart by radiation. Later on he is able to reconstruct himself and now had godlike abilities.
There is very little that this character cannot do. He can teleport, create things almost out of thin air and we even get hints that he can create life in some form. He is, for all intents and purposes, a god among men.
Now a character with godlike abilities would raise plenty of issues by itself, but Manhattan is also an asset of the United States, developing new technologies and participating in the Vietnam War, which was won for the USA in this world because of him.
The first thing I?d like to discuss with this character is the notion that if he is a character with godlike ability, or even a god itself, then he was one created by humankind and it?s creations. This raises the issue I have long held to be true. That the divine is a creation not of powers above, but something we as humans have made for ourselves and convinced ourselves is true. ?God made by humans? instead of ?humans made by god?.
Godlike power and knowledge opens up many moral discussions but the biggest one of all as far as I am concerned is whether or not such a character as Manhattan can even be subject to morality like the rest of us.
Consider. We draw our morality from the powers that be. Our religions, our governments, our families. Morality is something which is inherently given to us by those above. Now obviously we consider morality a good thing and I?d never say otherwise, regardless of who gives it to us. But Manhattan has none above him. He is essentially all-powerful. What reason does he have to follow any sense of morality at all? He can?t be threatened, or coerced or manipulated.
Also, a bit off-topic here but, as I have stated many times in posts like these, I am an atheist. I do not believe in god. However, if I DID believe and was asked by other atheists or intellectuals why an all-powerful and all-knowing god would allow the world?s tragedies to occur, my answer would be simple:
?He doesn?t care.?
God, if he truly existed as people describe, would probably have the same attitude towards human as Dr Manhattan does. A being who is so far above and beyond everyone like us that he simply cannot connect to us on any level. It?s like when you walk through a park and step on an ant, or blade of grass. You never give those things a moment?s thought. Because you, as a human, are so my greater, bigger and more powerful than those things beneath you that their end would not move you to any degree.
Which brings me back to our discussion regarding Manhattan and morality. Manhattan is a person who is so far beyond the things we can understand that morality, at least our kind of morality, would have no bearing on him. If he were to, on a whim, wipe out an entire city of people, it would not matter to him. It would be like one of us stepping on an ant hill. It?s a matter of scale. To us, stepping on an ant hill would not move us because we know of the ?big picture?, the world around us and the more important things in it. But him? He sees the ?bigger picture?, the whole universe and beyond. He understands that in the truly grand scheme of things, it probably wouldn?t matter of the whole human race vanished, because we are just one tiny blue world in a vast wondrous universe.
Now fans of the series will be quick to defend his actions at this time. You see, Manhattan has the power to see into the future and know exactly what will happen and when. No variation, no choice in the matter, if he see what he?s supposed to do he will do it. So his lack of interest in humanity could be attributed not to genuine apathy, but to his merely playing out the script.
But even taking this into account, we have no attempt on his part to even try and defy this so-called ?set future?. Has he tried in the past and failed? Has he given up on the prospect of a future you shape for yourselves? We never get any answers to these questions but it does give us a very interesting situation. Dr Manhattan, the closest thing to a god any mortal person will ever experience in this fictional world, is just as powerless as the rest of us and is, when constrained by the set history before him, little more than a puppet.
Well, that?s about everything I have to say on this character. I hope you all weren?t too bored reading all this.
Next time I will be discussing the issues surrounding the character of Rorschach.
P.s: I wasn?t quite sure which section of the forums to put this discussion in so if you think it belongs somewhere else, please let me know.
