There is a respectable Protestant tradition (Qietism) that argues that what you achieve is much less important than the state of your soul, which fits in nicely with the view that as long as you sacrifice yourself, it doesn't matter if the sacrifice actually *achieves* anything.
You know, I kept thinking that Whedon's morality seemed terribly Protestant, and I'm glad you've finally put a name to it for me. This does seem to be the point of Angel's Season Two epiphany about "if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do" - you're not trying to accomplish anything tangible, but to live your life the right way and become a better person. This appears to be the gist of his speech to Connor as well.
On that basis, you can easily rationalize Angel's ultimate decision to throw his life away in a hopeless gesture, but not the cruelties he inflicts on innocents like Drogyn and ambiguous-but-perhaps-redeemable Lindsey. Such means could only be justified by worthy ends, and if there's no practical point to Angel's final campaign, then it seems like he's won neither a physical nor a moral victory...
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Date: 2005-01-02 03:23 pm (UTC)You know, I kept thinking that Whedon's morality seemed terribly Protestant, and I'm glad you've finally put a name to it for me. This does seem to be the point of Angel's Season Two epiphany about "if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do" - you're not trying to accomplish anything tangible, but to live your life the right way and become a better person. This appears to be the gist of his speech to Connor as well.
On that basis, you can easily rationalize Angel's ultimate decision to throw his life away in a hopeless gesture, but not the cruelties he inflicts on innocents like Drogyn and ambiguous-but-perhaps-redeemable Lindsey. Such means could only be justified by worthy ends, and if there's no practical point to Angel's final campaign, then it seems like he's won neither a physical nor a moral victory...