The issue of morality is a topic that is widespread and common in ancient mythology, television documentaries, movies, parental reprimands, anime series, manga magazines... The question remains: is there really good and evil that we can judge the credibility of each of them?! Because it is not easy to answer that question conclusively, that issue attracts us widely. That's why I'm going to explain the ethics problem, based on the anime series Death Note.
I will initially explain the plot of The Death Note briefly to those who have not seen it. The series takes place in an alternative and contemporary society, where events take place between 2008 and 2013. The hero of the series, Yagami Light, a brilliant student who is so weary and persistent, one day finds a black diary, "The Diary of Death," which was dropped by a Shinigami, a "god of death."
Any person who puts his name in that note.. Die!
From here, Yagami Light divides justice in a world where all criminals are eliminated. Shortly after, the great Detective El appears to try to arrest Yagami Light, as Light's ideas of justice do not correspond to Detective L, and humanity becomes a battleground over the concept of justice that can prevail.
According to that summary, the moral dilemma has become clearer. The vision of human beings - in relation to any crime - relates to the society where they live and the values they have received from a young age, and unfortunately, many people behave violently and maliciously, but it is very difficult for someone to consider themselves evil! Ironically, many human beings are doing the harshest deeds in order to reach something good.
By looking at malice and violence, man must understand the different perspectives of both the guilty and the victim. Based on this concept, I will link the analysis of the series to "Is Killing Wrong?": A Study of Pure Sociology by Mark Cooney, where he refers here to one of the roots of malice as the ideal doctrine of doing what is good by doing what is corrupt. Violence for the guilty is a necessary measure of the term to reach what is right, and we can observe this way of thinking so much throughout history, the most prominent example of which is the Stalinist purges, which have led to the deaths of some 20 million human beings from Yes, the establishment of a communist utopia.
In one of the series' opening scenes, Yagami Light passes on television, where he broadcasts reports of murders and violent crimes, and most people pass without causing them any discomfort, and that scene is repeated several times, emphasizing the magnitude of the crime rate, as well as Yagami Light's strong sense of justice.
After Yagami Light bought the death diary, he felt a little hesitant already, but eventually decided to establish a new utopia in which he would eliminate all criminals, and he saw that violence was required in order to achieve what was right, thus assuming he was the right person to judge others.
The entire Death Note series highlights Light's insensitive attitude towards humans: he has no deep relationships with anyone, and feels contempt and hatred for human beings. Yagami Light initially wonders if the desire to change the world is a matter of logic anyway, and in this scene he sees a child being insulted by his mother, girls babbling about frivolous conversations, and a gang of motorcyclists harassing a young woman; all of these characters are Yagami Light, a big part of a morally collapsed society. So, can the Death Note community be a harsh critique of our consumer societies as we are sensitive to the violence around us? Do we need a judge?
As we have already stated, morality is an ever-changing issue; what is illegal today has been normal for decades, and even in modern times one can be respected and grateful by doing murder! If a police officer shoots and becomes a suspect, the policeman will certainly become a hero in everyone's eyes, so the killer can become a hero, and he is also likely to become a hero against the law. In Death Note, there are people who support the actions of Yagami Light and others who disdain them, and the fact is that when people in the series notice that criminals are dying, the crime rate has dropped dramatically, is it acceptable that people are forced to comply with the laws only because of fear of punishment?
Like any truly murderer, Light does not consider himself evil, and he knows that his actions are indeed evil, but since they aspire to goodness, they are justified to him. Light feels guilty after the elimination of his second victim, and is fully aware that his actions will have severe consequences, whether by law or because of his deep sense of guilt, but ultimately decides to sacrifice his soul for humanity, and it quickly becomes clear that Light feels superior to other human beings through his mission.
In one scene, he even reads a passage about Nietzsche's supreme man, and through it the moral dilemma is repeatedly highlighted: in the past moral values were interpreted through religions, but with the development of natural sciences and the increasing claim that there was no God, in the end there was a problem;
It is about determining whether a person is a good or evil, guilty or innocent, on who makes judgments; Deeply divergent about what is right and what is wrong; It is appreciated by the act itself without being related to its consequences, which of these opinions is the most correct alone?
One thing is certain: if you want to survive a crime you have committed, you have to think carefully about who you are going to kill;
So what do you think about that? Is there really a specific answer to the question of what is right and what is wrong? If you have the opportunity to eliminate thousands of criminals by writing a diary and creating a world free of murder, rape and other crimes. Are you going to do that? Has the Death Note changed your views?