WATCHMEN WEEK: Is This Why Nietzsche Mourned?

"Who are we saving them from?" asks NiteOwl in a moment of concern.

"From themselves." Answers the Comedian as he takes a drag from his cigar, grins like a fool and tosses a smoke bomb toward a young man. As the bomb explodes we see that he's been spraying 'Who Watches the Watchmen' on the darkened wall of an alley.

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When viewing Watchmen in the Theater, I was struck by how dark their world truly was. One film critic remarked that it was the darkest, most serious superhero film ever made- one without "comic" appeal. There wasn't even a moment of jest or comic relief to break up the brooding tension. It was serious, slow, and violent.

I'd honestly be surprised if anyone outside of fans of the graphic novel could sit through it without being bored to tears or utterly confused. At 2:35 it's a long trip through the darkness of man's heart.

About halfway into the film (when I was sitting there thinking, "yup, it's pretty much the same as the book only trimmed down to the point where it's going to seem ridiculous to all the people who haven't bothered delving into the real version") I suddenly became really overwhelmed by the words Nietzsche put in the mouth of his Madman Character to mourn the loss of God. I firmly believe that although he was convinced that God did not exist that he was equally convinced that the idea of God was a good thing and that in killing the idea of God, the would would be worse off:

"Where is God?" [The Madman] cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him---you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?"

Do you hear the sorrow in his prose?

This profound sense of loss that Nietzsche relates in his parable was also indicative of the film Watchmen. In it there is a heavy sadness. It's a world where men have usurped the law and enacted their own sense of justice. They're a cold bunch, full of flaws. They're practically criminals (some of them, like Rorschach are definitely criminals) and they rule the world around them- sometimes reluctantly- as it slips further into perversion and debauchery.

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My own personal opinion is that this film is a great picture of what happens when men abandon God and set themselves up in His place. It becomes a terrible place where violence begets violence and the only way to find peace it through fear. Adrien knows this, and that's why he enacts his master stroke- blowing up the world to save the world.

The apostle Paul knew it too. In fact, much of the first chapter of his letter to the Romans seems to give a similar picture of darkness and fear. The world does become colder when its inhabitants try to play Ubermensch. That's just the way it works.

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A few questions to wrap up WATCHMEN WEEK:

1. Whether or not you believe in God- do you believe that the idea of God is a good thing that should be mourned when it's missing from society?

2. Do you think that people respond better to fear or love?

3. Have you ever read a philosopher you disagreed with and found some truth there regardless?

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* Those who avoid reading Nietzsche because he's associated with the phrase "God is Dead" miss out on a lot of his great contributions to Philosophy. It's true that he was an Atheist- but if we consider his teachings without condemning his beliefs, he's actually got a lot of interesting things to say about what life is like when people reject the idea of God.

One can reject the idea of God without debating whether or not God exists- for "killing God" in society or in your heart doesn't depend on His existence. Plenty of people who believe that God exists still reject Him. So talking through Nietzsche doesn't mean that we become Atheists, it means that we admit that we live in a culture who have in some ways "killed God" by ignoring or rejecting Him outright.