Thanos and the unsolvable trolley problem
“Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe. But this… does put a smile on my face.” ―Thanos
Warning: Spoiler Ahead! Don’t yell at me later. m’kay?
Avengers: Infinity War has quite possibly been one of the best movies of 2018, so far. After realizing that Thanos is coming to Earth, the Avengers team up with other heroes from the MCU to form an alliance, in hopes to bring Thanos down.
The juxtaposition in level of strength between the MCU heroes combined and Thanos himself is interesting. What is more interesting, though, are the diverging schools of thought between the MCU heroes and Thanos and his followers.
The MCU heroes’ inclinations lie in keeping harmony in the world, and letting it function autonomously, spontaneously. From an idealist’s perspective, team MCU are the protagonists. They want to keep the world safe and functioning as it already is. ‘No person should play God and control the universe’ fate’ is what they seem to believe in. No individual should pursue to sculpt his ideal world. The universe balances itself out without external intervention- The invisible hand, as our late Philosopher, Adam Smith coined.
Now, let’s take a look at Thanos. The mad Titan, as they call, him, holds a contrarian belief. During his younger years, Thanos saw the resources in Titan plummet due to an unsustainable over consumption by an ever increasing population of the inhabitants of Titan.
Just can’t keep going on, he thought, something must change. But who changes it? Should the natural process of over population and over consumption be left to it’s own accord and let it fix itself? -No, Thanos argued. He did not believe in the invisible hand. He did not correlate to the same school of thought as Adam Smith did.
Thanos realized that something needed to be done, but who would do it? And what should the individual do? CONTROL- That is what Thanos believed in. Thanos wanted to play God.
“Fine. I’ll do it myself. Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe. But this… does put a smile on my face.” ―Thanos
Thanos believed that in order to achieve balance in the universe, he had to take control over it. Reminds you of Light Yagami from Death Note? Yes, pretty much, isn’t it!
“This world is rotten, and those who are making it rot deserve to die. Someone has to do it, so why not me?” — Light Yagami
So if Thanos wants to take control of the “well being” of the universe, then how does he do it?
“When I’m done, half of humanity will still exist. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.” ―Thanos
Answer- By randomly eliminating half of the universe’s living beings.
Surely, he can’t keep traveling around every place of existence and eliminate them one by one. And so he heads out to search for the six infinity stones.
“With all six stones, I can simply snap my fingers, they would all cease to exist. I call that mercy.”
“And then what?”
“I finally rest, and watch the sunrise on a grateful universe.” ―Thanos
Mercy? How can Thanos even think that eliminating half of the universe’s population is a good deed? This is surely wrong, right?
“ Never treat a person as a means to an end.”-Kant
Well, Immanuel Kant would definitely be against Thanos’ school of thought. One of Kant’s famous works is his categorical imperative. More of it here. By killing, Thanos plans on doing exactly what Kant discourages.
That is because Thanos believes in a school of thought called Utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility. “Utility” is defined in various ways, usually in terms of the well-being of sentient entities.- Source
So, what’s the right school of thought then? Kantism and Utilitarianism? This question of ethics is indeed an intense problem to solve.
Presenting- The trolley problem
Consider there is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person tied up on the side track. You have two options:
Do nothing, and the trolley kills the five people on the main track.
Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.
So, What is the most ethical choice in such a scenario? Spoiler alert- There is NO objectively correct choice. The trolley problem has baffled thinkers of ages. Different schools of thought advise different courses of action, leading to distinct results.
A Kantian would choose not to perform any action and let the five people in the scenario die. A utilitarian would choose to pull the lever and sacrifice one life in order to save five. Either way, lives will be lost.
The MCU heroes follow the Kantian school of thought. They also believe in the option to not control certain high stakes events. Thanos, on the other hand, is a utilitarian. He believes in actively taking control and eliminating half of the world in order to let the remaining half survive a better life.
Indeed, the moral ethics of MCU heroes and Thanos are diabolically staggered! Morality and ethics can be difficult to master. And every scenario demands a deeper analysis in order to decide a definitive course of morally correct and ethically right decision.
What do I think?
Thanos’ end goal of enabling future living beings to ultimately live a more fruitful and joyous lives may be somewhat understandable, is although, immoral. It is immoral because Thanos believes in using present living beings as a means to achieve his end goal. Thanos, in my opinion, is more of a utilitarian dictator, enforcing his moral inclinations on all the sentient beings of the universe. This, in itself, as Adam Smith, would agree to, is immoral.
Thanos wants to plat God, deciding the fate of the world by his own moral inclinations. The bigger problem is- his moral inclinations are flawed.
If the moral conundrum between MCU heroes and Thanos interests you, and how an individual tries to act God, then I highly recommend watching highly rated 9.0/10 imdb TV show: Death Note. Link: here.
P.S: Just don’t watch the Netflix remake of Death Note (they screwed it up!).
Wubba-lubba-dub-dub!
