Moral Myopia: Difference between revisions

Line 8:

The implicit or explicit code of conduct within a social group whereby the standards of morality stop applying past the fence of their back yard.

They may be [[Blue Blood|royalty]], a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], [[The Beautiful Elite]], [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]], [[Fire Forged Friends]] and [[True Companions]] [[Villainous Friendship]] or not, a close [[Thicker Than Water|family]] or fervent [[My Country Right or Wrong|patriots]], but the attitude is all the same: They are justified in taking anything and delivering [[Disproportionate Retribution]] upon anyone who would take anything from them. [[Lack of Empathy]] is on full display; everyone else is [[What Measure Is a Non Human|a nonperson, subhuman]], fair game.

They may be [[Blue Blood|royalty]], a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], [[The Beautiful Elite]], [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]], [[Fire-Forged Friends]] and [[True Companions]] [[Villainous Friendship]] or not, a close [[Thicker Than Water|family]] or fervent [[My Country Right or Wrong|patriots]], but the attitude is all the same: They are justified in taking anything and delivering [[Disproportionate Retribution]] upon anyone who would take anything from them. [[Lack of Empathy]] is on full display; everyone else is [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|a nonperson, subhuman]], fair game.

If you ever accuse them of being evil and demand that they justify their actions -- if they even feel any need to justify something to an outsider -- don't expect any [[Necessarily Evil|remorse about their]] [[Dirty Business]], or even admissions of villainy, whether [[I Am a Monster|regretful]] or [[Card Carrying Villain|gleeful.]] These are likely to spit at you that they [[Values Dissonance|do not subscribe to your idea of "evil"]]. Particularly blind sorts may even throw in a [[Holier Than Thou]] [[Hannibal Lecture]]. After all, how many good men would speak against murder as the ultimate evil -- but if they found out a loved one committed it, [[Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal|they would make excuses for them]] and let them get away with it, if they could? And on the other side of things, how many do-gooders [[What Measure Is a Mook|actually take into account the lives of minor evil minions]] that will be necessarily lost on the way to saving the world?

If you ever accuse them of being evil and demand that they justify their actions -- if they even feel any need to justify something to an outsider -- don't expect any [[Necessarily Evil|remorse about their]] [[Dirty Business]], or even admissions of villainy, whether [[I Am a Monster|regretful]] or [[Card-Carrying Villain|gleeful.]] These are likely to spit at you that they [[Values Dissonance|do not subscribe to your idea of "evil"]]. Particularly blind sorts may even throw in a [[Holier Than Thou]] [[Hannibal Lecture]]. After all, how many good men would speak against murder as the ultimate evil -- but if they found out a loved one committed it, [[Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal|they would make excuses for them]] and let them get away with it, if they could? And on the other side of things, how many do-gooders [[What Measure Is a Mook?|actually take into account the lives of minor evil minions]] that will be necessarily lost on the way to saving the world?

[[Real Life]] has many examples of this trope. '''[[No Real Life Examples Please|That is all we need to know.]]''' Hell, we've probably all done something like this at some point, to varying degrees.

See also [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape]], [[A Million Is a Statistic]], [[Moral Dissonance]], [[~~Its~~ All About Me]], and [[Would Be Rude to Say Genocide]]. Likely to be a "gray" in [[Black and Gray Morality]], [[Gray and Gray Morality]], or [[White and Gray Morality]]. When the writers seem to wholeheartedly privilege the protagonists this way, it's a case of [[Protagonist Centered Morality]]. The [[Cannibal Tribe]] may employ this to avoid self-depopulation while also refusing to abandon cannibalism.

See also [[Ape Shall Never Kill Ape]], [[A Million Is a Statistic]], [[Moral Dissonance]], [[It's All About Me]], and [[Would Be Rude to Say Genocide]]. Likely to be a "gray" in [[Black and Gray Morality]], [[Gray and Gray Morality]], or [[White and Gray Morality]]. When the writers seem to wholeheartedly privilege the protagonists this way, it's a case of [[Protagonist-Centered Morality]]. The [[Cannibal Tribe]] may employ this to avoid self-depopulation while also refusing to abandon cannibalism.

== Anime & Manga ==

* When [[Evil Old Folks|Enya Geil]] from ''[[Jo ~~Jos~~ Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'' finds out that her son has been killed by the protagonists, she swears revenge and stops at nothing to try to kill them. Said son was a deranged psychopath who enjoyed raping and killing women.

* When [[Evil Old Folks|Enya Geil]] from ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'' finds out that her son has been killed by the protagonists, she swears revenge and stops at nothing to try to kill them. Said son was a deranged psychopath who enjoyed raping and killing women.

** Ditto for Yoshihiro Kira later on. He tries to protect his son Yoshikage from having his "quiet life" disturbed (which happens to involve killing women, [[A Love to Dismember|cutting off their hands, and keeping them]].)

* In the various ''[[Gundam]]'' series, the pilots can be heard screaming their friend's names when they get blasted. One example includes Athrun of ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' getting all pissed off as his friend gets shot down, even though he and his friends were conducting a sneak attack against a civilian outpost of a neutral nation (granted it was supplying weapons to their enemies) which involved killing dozens if not hundreds of enemy personnel with large explosions, including non-combat ones.

Line 43:

** Those two examples are just the tip of the iceberg for a show full of morally myopic characters.

* ''[[Magic Knight Rayearth]]'' example: the young summoner Ascot repeatedly sent his monster friends against the three heroines, with clear orders to kill the girls (and by doing so, {{spoiler|he indirectly caused Presea's death}}). When the Magic Knights killed the monsters in an act of legitimate self-defense and to defend ''their'' friends, Ascot would call that an atrocity and swear revenge. Happily ignoring the fact that it was ''he'' who sent them with intent to kill. In the end, Umi called him out on this, and managed to set him straight.

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'' [[The Rival|Koga]] serves as an excellent example. His [[Establishing Character Moment]] is slaughtering an [[Throwaway Country|entire village]] because his pet wolves were hungry, but enters an [[Unstoppable Rage]] when his [[Mauve Shirt|pack]] is killed. He's considered to be [[Anti Villain|sympathetic]].

* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'' [[The Rival|Koga]] serves as an excellent example. His [[Establishing Character Moment]] is slaughtering an [[Throwaway Country|entire village]] because his pet wolves were hungry, but enters an [[Unstoppable Rage]] when his [[Mauve Shirt|pack]] is killed. He's considered to be [[Anti-Villain|sympathetic]].

* This trope kept the feuding flames fueled in ''[[Basilisk]]''. [[Cycle of Revenge]], indeed.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima (Manga)|Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has the entire mage society condemning mind control, such as [[Love Potion|love potions]], yet it is common practice to erase memories and put up wards to mentally command [[Muggles]] away from places that would be inconvenient.

Line 67:

** And speaking of Danzo, his idea of the right thing to do puts him second only to Orochimaru for trauma produced. If that. Danzo is the man behind the Uchiha massacre, and the waste and ruin of its only two survivors, particularly the elder. Danzo is the man behind the death of Yahiko and the concomitant transformation of Akatsuki from pacifists who wanted to save the world to a ring of evil mercenary nuke-nin, because in taking everything from Nagato he created ''Pein.'' He also has a standard policy of abusing and brainwashing small children into his minions. He is clearly in the top five evil people stakes for the series, but he ''[[I Did What I Had to Do|doesn't think he's a bad person]]''.

*** Oh, it's even worse than that. Danzo is strongly implied to have conspired with Orochimaru after he betrayed the village. He also stood by while Pain was attacking because he hoped that Tsunade would get killed, giving him a shot at becoming Hokage. Then during the meeting to select the next Hokage, he had the audacity to claim that it was Sarutobi's ideals that had led to the current situation and produced Pain, when ''it was his fault Nagato hated Konoha,'' something he conveniently neglects to mention. He's also responsible for Kabuto's [[Start of Darkness]] as well. Not only did he blackmail Kabuto and his mother figure into spying for Root, he ''set them up to kill each other'' when he felt that they [[He Knows Too Much|knew too much]] and had become a liability. Consequently, Kabuto betrays Konoha. All the atrocities he has committed are supposedly "for the good of Konoha," but given how his actions seem to constantly create more enemies...

* ''[[Ranma One Half]]'' is full of this, with "heroic" and "villainous" characters alike capable of deploring the antics of others... while seeing no problem with doing the same thing themselves. [[Lord Error Prone|Tatewaki Kuno]] may perhaps be the best example of this in the characters; his statements about what makes a person moral (and he, naturally, is the most moral and honorable person in town if you listen to him) and his actual actions are pretty much exact opposites.

* ''[[Ranma One Half]]'' is full of this, with "heroic" and "villainous" characters alike capable of deploring the antics of others... while seeing no problem with doing the same thing themselves. [[Lord Error-Prone|Tatewaki Kuno]] may perhaps be the best example of this in the characters; his statements about what makes a person moral (and he, naturally, is the most moral and honorable person in town if you listen to him) and his actual actions are pretty much exact opposites.

* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', the Jovians very much fit this. They have a "Heroes of Justice" attitude like someone who has watched too much [[Super Robot]] anime <ref> they have, which is how they got this attitude</ref>, which means that they have very high standards and see the world in terms of [[Black and White Morality]]. Thus, while Jovians are often personally pleasant, they generally behave in a totally merciless way in attacking Earth (since they see humans as [[Always Chaotic Evil]]). There's a quote from one that really says it all- "If only the humans appreciated life as we do, I would not have to kill so many of them."

* The cyborgs of ''[[Gunslinger Girl]]'' don't care about harming or being harmed by others, but regard any attack on their handler as an outrageous affront worthy of immediate vengeance. Justified in that this is part of what their conditioning is supposed to have them be.

Line 106:

* In ''[[AI Artificial Intelligence]]'' we see a group of humans that make a sport and spectacle of publicly destroying sentient robots in various ways. They are shown having great concern when the possibility that a child has gone missing on their grounds and that it may have been confused with a robot is presented to them. Meanwhile, the crowd who've gathered to see this show end up rioting when the MC tries to have the child-mecha David dissolved in acid, and it's clear that they did this mostly because the MC failed to prove that David was a robot.

* In [[X Men]]: First Class, the [[Big Bad]] tells Erik the justification for his plan to {{spoiler|start a nuclear war that would probably kill hundreds of millions or billions of people}}. Erik then says, {{spoiler|"I agree with everything you say. Unfortunately, you killed my mother." Erik then kills him in a [[Karmic Death]].}}

* In ''[[Apocalypto]]'', the leader of the slavers, Zero Wolf, is perfectly content with leading his men (and among them his son) to [[Rape Pillage and Burn]] the jungle villages, enslaving its dwellers and even killing their babies; however when one of those villagers, Jaguar Paw, kills his son in self-defense he starts an implacable chase to kill that man.

* In ''[[Apocalypto]]'', the leader of the slavers, Zero Wolf, is perfectly content with leading his men (and among them his son) to [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]] the jungle villages, enslaving its dwellers and even killing their babies; however when one of those villagers, Jaguar Paw, kills his son in self-defense he starts an implacable chase to kill that man.

== Literature ==

* ''[[The Executioner]]'': Mack Bolan notes this tendency in one novel. A team of Mafia hitmen is sent to murder undercover cop Leo Turrin, but instead find their advance team dead. Bolan listens to them ranting and raging about how Leo will die a slow and agonizing death for this "treachery", [[Warrior Poet|reflects on the hypocrisy involved]], then proceeds to [[One Man Army|slaughter the lot of them]].

* ''[[The Executioner]]'': Mack Bolan notes this tendency in one novel. A team of Mafia hitmen is sent to murder undercover cop Leo Turrin, but instead find their advance team dead. Bolan listens to them ranting and raging about how Leo will die a slow and agonizing death for this "treachery", [[Warrior Poet|reflects on the hypocrisy involved]], then proceeds to [[One-Man Army|slaughter the lot of them]].

* Played for laughs in the ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]'' novels: Nanny Ogg is proud to admit that one of her children was stealing lead off of the opera house roof because "It isn't a crime if an Ogg does it."

** The same goes for the Ogg clan in general. While Nanny Ogg will stand for (and encourage) fighting, backstabbing and general competition within the family, the second anyone from outside the family tries this against them there'll be trouble.

Line 132:

* Harry Turtledove's ''World War'' series has The Race, a race of lizard-like aliens who come to Earth during [[World War II]] to add the planet to their empire. Because their kind are so slow to change, they think everyone and everything should fall within their own standards. For example, they refer to Earthly religions as superstitions, but believe in their own version of Heaven as fervently as any fundamentalist. Later in the series, they pitch a fit when some mice accidentally get set loose on their homeworld and start causing ecological damage; when a human points out that they intentionally brought their plants and animals to Earth which are causing quite a bit of damage themselves, their response is "That's okay, because we're the ones who did it."

** This is actually a frequent theme in all of Turtledove's work. You'll often have a character revile the actions of the others side when his side is doing the exact same thing.

* Despite generally portraying the bad guys as [[What Measure Is a Non Human|acceptable targets]], there is a moment in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' (just before he first sees an "Oliphaunt") when Sam witnesses an enemy soldier from the south being killed in battle by Faramir's men. For a moment he wonders whether the man was truly evil or was he forced or fooled into the war, and whether he had a family and what his name was. Sam is glad that he couldn't see the dead man's face. This different attitude probably comes from the soldier being a [[What Measure Is a Non Human|human rather than an orc]].

* Despite generally portraying the bad guys as [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|acceptable targets]], there is a moment in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' (just before he first sees an "Oliphaunt") when Sam witnesses an enemy soldier from the south being killed in battle by Faramir's men. For a moment he wonders whether the man was truly evil or was he forced or fooled into the war, and whether he had a family and what his name was. Sam is glad that he couldn't see the dead man's face. This different attitude probably comes from the soldier being a [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|human rather than an orc]].

** Averted much earlier in the book, when Gandalf and Frodo discuss Gollum:

{{quote| '''Frodo:''' He is at least as bad as an orc, and deserves death.<br />

Line 147:

* The Chinese and Russians in [[Dale Brown]] books. If the Americans remotely try to stand up for themselves they eagerly mouth off about imperialist aggression, not caring that they're frequently guilty of actual atrocity, and if Pat McLanahan shows them the error of their ways they whine like babies throwing a tantrum.

* Done various times in ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' books. For example, in ''Echoes of Honor'', a [[State Sec]] general eagerly anticipates a deadly vengeance on Hades's prison-breakers for killing his comrade and friend, wilfully ignorant of the atrocities the wardens have committed.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: This definitely happened in the book ''Payback''. When three men wearing presidential gold shields give Jack Emery a [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]], Jack goes to his girlfriend Nicole Quinn and gives her a [[What the Hell Hero]] speech. He basically accuses her of bringing this on him just because he snooped around on her business and tells her to go to hell. She in turn gives Charles Martin the same type of speech for calling in those men on Jack. Charles responds by pointing out that she only cares because they beat up her boyfriend, and that she wouldn't care if they did that to someone she didn't know. She ends up admitting that he has a point.

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: This definitely happened in the book ''Payback''. When three men wearing presidential gold shields give Jack Emery a [[No Holds Barred Beatdown]], Jack goes to his girlfriend Nicole Quinn and gives her a [[What the Hell, Hero?]] speech. He basically accuses her of bringing this on him just because he snooped around on her business and tells her to go to hell. She in turn gives Charles Martin the same type of speech for calling in those men on Jack. Charles responds by pointing out that she only cares because they beat up her boyfriend, and that she wouldn't care if they did that to someone she didn't know. She ends up admitting that he has a point.

* Vlad Tepes in ''[[Count and Countess (Literature)|Count and Countess]]''. As a kid, he was fairly ethical, but as an adult, he seems to live by a bizarre code of standards that changes to fit whatever mood he's in.

Line 173:

* In the fourth ''[[Black Adder]]'' series, General Melchett is utterly enraged when Blackadder cooks and eats his pet pigeon, and sentences Blackadder to death in a comically ridiculous [[Kangaroo Court]]. However, in another episode, it's revealed that he ran over Lt. George's pet rabbit when George was a child and is completely callous about it, both when it happened, and when he talks about it in the present.

** And, of course, there's the obvious [[Moral Myopia]] involved regarding Melchett being driven to self-righteous fury over the death of a pigeon while callously sending hundreds of thousands of men to their deaths in the mud and trenches every day.

* One that stands out in ''[[~~Noahs~~ Arc]]'' is based on Ricky's protectiveness of Noah. Ricky makes it clear that {{spoiler|if Wade so much as looks at another guy, he'll have Ricky to answer to. Yet when Noah cheats on Wade, not only does Ricky not call Noah out on it, he actually is upset with Wade over leaving Noah for that}}.

* One that stands out in ''[[Noah's Arc]]'' is based on Ricky's protectiveness of Noah. Ricky makes it clear that {{spoiler|if Wade so much as looks at another guy, he'll have Ricky to answer to. Yet when Noah cheats on Wade, not only does Ricky not call Noah out on it, he actually is upset with Wade over leaving Noah for that}}.

* Jeff accuses Duncan of this in the [[Community (TV)/Recap/S1 E01 Pilot|pilot]] of ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]''. See quote page. Since Jeff himself is also a near-perfect example of [[Moral Myopia]] at this point, he's also being [[Hypocritical Humor|more than a little hypocritical]].

* ''[[Smallville]]'': [[Lex Luthor]]. If it happens to him it's unforgiveable. If he does it to someone else, it's business as usual.

Line 271:

* Averted in ''[[Invader Zim]]'' - the Irkens as a whole think of non-Irkens as nonpersons, but the Tallest at least have no problem throwing their own kind ''out of an airlock'' when it pleases them. Come to think of it, [[Villain Protagonist|Zim]] seems to think anyone who isn't him is expendable for the sake of his mission, as shown in [[Boot Camp Episode|''Hobo 13'']] where he sacrifices his entire training squad (including fellow Irken [[Chew Toy|Skoodge]]) in order to complete his training.

* In the ''[[Star Wars the Clone Wars]]'' Padawan Lost arc, a Trandoshan hunter gets righteously pissed when his son is killed during a hunt of kidnapped Jedi younglings.

* In ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'' [[April Fools Day]] episode, "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show", Bart, in retaliation for a series of mean spirited April Fools pranks pulled by Homer, finally pulls one over on him, only to accidentally send him into a coma. After Bart confesses to the prank, Homer wakes up and strangles him. This is just plain wrong, because Homer pulled some harmful if not potentially deadly pranks, including duct-taping Bart's eyes shut, and putting milk in the fridge that had been next to a furnace for six weeks, yet never apologized. Father of the year material he ain't, that's for sure.

* In ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'' [[April Fools' Day]] episode, "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show", Bart, in retaliation for a series of mean spirited April Fools pranks pulled by Homer, finally pulls one over on him, only to accidentally send him into a coma. After Bart confesses to the prank, Homer wakes up and strangles him. This is just plain wrong, because Homer pulled some harmful if not potentially deadly pranks, including duct-taping Bart's eyes shut, and putting milk in the fridge that had been next to a furnace for six weeks, yet never apologized. Father of the year material he ain't, that's for sure.

** Similarly in "Fear Of Flying", the patrons of Moe's bar play a sequence of increasingly brutal practical jokes on their publican, all of which he takes in good humor (Including HIDING A COBRA in the cash register which repeatedly bites him). Lastly Homer plays the innocuous "Loose Salt Shaker Lid" gag on Moe and immediately gets chewed out by his friends and barred from entry.

* In the ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' episode "A Jones for a Smith", a crack-addicted Stan ends up ruining Steve's family-to-family dinner date with the family of the latter's new girlfriend, and ultimately spoiling the latter's chances. After kicking the habit, Stan insists that Steve, who is still without the girl and livid over it, will forgive him for it. Consider that just earlier in the season, Stan said that it would take time to forgive Steve for piloting a drone without his permission. Then again, this isn't too surprising considering that Stan tends to be an arrogant [[Jerkass]].

** It helps that he's actually said [[Forgotten Aesop|he never learns lessons]].

* Discord from ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' is a [[Reality Warper]] who turns Equestria into a [[World Gone Mad]], brutally [[Break the Cutie|breaks]] and brainwashes the mane cast, [[Driven to Madness|drives everypony insane]], and generally does whatever the heck he wants to [[For the Evulz]] with no remorse or sense of morality... And yet he calls Princess Celestia out for turning ''HIM'' [[Taken for Granite|to stone]] for doing the previously mentioned things.

* Discord from ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' is a [[Reality Warper]] who turns Equestria into a [[World Gone Mad]], brutally [[Break the Cutie|breaks]] and brainwashes the mane cast, [[Driven to Madness|drives everypony insane]], and generally does whatever the heck he wants to [[For the Evulz]] with no remorse or sense of morality... And yet he calls Princess Celestia out for turning ''HIM'' [[Taken for Granite|to stone]] for doing the previously mentioned things.

* As much of a complete and total [[Jerkass]] [[Spongebob SquarePants|Mr. Krabs]] has become, including the [[Moral Event Horizon|infamous "drive Plankton to suicide" incident]], fans tend to forget that Plankton was [[Not So Harmless|even]] '''[[Complete Monster|worse]]''' in [[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie]].

* [[Regular Show]]: "Under The Hood", Rigby is painting Park Avenue’s tv room:

{{quote| '''Park Avenue:''' ''No, no no, don’t. [[What the Hell Hero|What’s the matter with you?]]''<br />

{{quote| '''Park Avenue:''' ''No, no no, don’t. [[What the Hell, Hero?|What’s the matter with you?]]''<br />

'''Rigby:''' ''You painted all over our whole park.''<br />

'''Park Avenue:''' ''Yes, but its different, you know? It’s what I do! [[Because I'm Good At It|My stuff is good, you’re only making a mess!]]'' }}

Line 289:

[[Category:Hypocrite]]

[[Category:Moral Myopia]]

[[Category:Trope]]

[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]