Savages

180

On the walk Ben conducts an internal Socratic self- cross-examination.

You took a human life.

Yes, but in self-defense.

Not really, you were robbing him, he was the one defending himself.

Actually, he was robbing me first.

So two wrongs make a right?

Of course they don’t, but when he pulled the gun he left me no choice.

Certainly he did. Would it not have been the moral choice to allow him to kill you instead of committing a murder yourself?

I guess, but I just reacted.

Exactly. You didn’t think.

There wasn’t time to think. Only react.

But you put yourself in that situation. You committed a robbery, you carried a gun. Those were choices.

He would have killed me.

Now you are merely repeating yourself.

He would have killed my friends.

So you were saving them, not yourself?

I don’t know what the hell I was doing, all right?! I don’t recognize myself. I don’t know who I am anymore.

And it’s all fun and games until someone loses an I.