Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The Watchmen -Nietzschen Nihilism vs. Randian Absolutism

The Watchmen is a movie that has generated a great deal of interest across the internet, because many of the people who are hardcore internet junkies are old comic book fans too. The film is not a huge success but it is generating a lot of interest and discussion because it is, like the graphic novel it came from, rather unique. More than a good versus evil morality play or a pulp adventure story, Watchmen is a character study and a philosophical examination of the nature of man and why we act how we do.

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Alan Moore is a nihilist, he embraces anarchy as a proper method of dealing with government and follows the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche. The Watchmen is a comparison of philosophies with the presumption of nihilism's superiority in explaining the world and human behavior.

source


Saw the movie and read the book and I had a different take. I saw Rorschach as the rugged individualist (although an insane one) while Ozymandias represented the encroaching state. Rorschach wanted to make his own decisions and was willing to take the consequences, while Ozymandias felt he knew better and wanted to remove the ability to make those decisions from others.

This guy has obviously put a lot more thought into it than I have so he has probably hit a little closer to the essential conflicts. If he is correct it may explain why I felt a driving urge to read "Atlas Shrugged" after seeing the movie.



h/t Ace

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