There’s been a long-standing debate between two factions of marvel fans – one side that believes Thanos’s euthanasia plan was completely justified, and the other that calls him a complete lunatic. Which side are you on, and which side do you think I am?
I don’t agree with Thanos’s plan (if you thought I was on team Thanos, shame on you😂) for a few reasons.
His thought process was honestly very flawed. Okay dude, you believe humans are growing faster than the universe is able to replenish its resources, but how tf is genocide/euthanasia the only solution that comes to mind when you have infinite power to literally disrupt the fabrics of time and space? What happened to commanding the universe to fix itself without killing anyone? Coulda just snapped the finger and make the universe grow at a rate that ensures not just abundance of resources, but that things like world hunger would be solved.
Even in fiction, I’ve always been against the idea of superheroes playing God. This is why I get upset when people time travel to change things in the past or try to alter the course of someone lives or even their own lives if it’ll affect the timeline in general. It’s also the same reason I hate the “killing a few to save a million” or mass murdering for the greater good narratives. I can understand how in the eyes of some people, this could be justified, but it’s personally something I just can’t stomach the thought of.
Anyways, that’s too much movie thinking for now.
Every life is meaningful, and no one should have the power to play God with lives they didn’t create, even if it’s for “the greater good”. What about the lives of the people you’re sacrificing? Are their lives meaningless just because you see it fit that they should be slaughtered so others can get a better life?
Aside this, there’s the question of basis for selection of this few. How are you selecting who dies and who lives? You see how messed up that sounds already?
Not to mention that you will more than likely be creating monsters out of the children who will watch you pick their parents as lambs to the slaughter to save a bunch of other people who they neither know or care about. They'll grow up knowing nothing but pain, and vengeance (or justice depending on how pshychotic you are) will be lives mission. I’m not really sure, but I believe this is the villain origin story of one marvel character like that if I’m not mistaken.
The only way I think I could fathom being somewhat indifferent about something like this is if the person sacrificing the few to save millions themselves is among the sacrifices. If you want to be so selfless, let’s see you walk the talk you preach. Jump on a grenade, Captain America.
Okay you know what, forget these extreme hypotheticals. Let’s take something practical for closing thoughts.
You know how many peoples’ lives can be saved if a completely healthy adult human being donates their organs? 8, bro. Aside saving the lives of those 8 people, one adding tissues, you can improve the lives of 75 people. So now lemme ask you two simple questions.
- Are you ready to give up your own life to save 8 people and improve the lives of 75 others?
- You still think it’d be okay killing 125,000 people to save a million people? Because relatively, 125k is a small number compared to a million, right?
Images are mine