| | From a dramatic standpoint, "24" poses real-world terrorist situations that occur in a constant "emergency" context. "We are running out of time!" is the show's cliche line, as the digital clock onscreen ticks down toward disaster.
The fact that these are ticking-bomb emergencies renders moot the conventional applications of rational self-interest ethics ("maximize long-term gain"). In an emergency situation, facing imminent disaster, you don't always have the luxury of "maximizing gain"; you are reduced to the more primitive self-defense premise of "minimizing loss."
Facing impending terrorist acts, as he is every week, counter-terrorist agent Bauer is necessarily thrust into primitive self-defense situations, where normal moral (and hence legal) principles simply do not apply. His job is to restore the normal moral-legal context, by eliminating those who pose a "clear and present danger" to America's survival.
Living in a constant emergency context, as the Jack Bauer character does, necessarily has terrible consequences on one's emotional life. Try to imagine yourself in that kind of a situation, and ask yourself what it would do to you.
But if you then ask yourself, as some Objectivists might, whether one "should" take on such a job -- whether it would amount to "self-sacrifice" -- well, ask yourself what would happen if NO ONE chose this thankless task of defending America against her enemies.
Somebody has to do it. Is that person an altruistic martyr? Or is he a hero of the principle of self-defense, during a time of chronic emergencies?
I think Jack Bauer represents a true hero of the self-defense premise. In emergencies, he does whatever he has to to protect his highest values -- which include his country, its freedom, and its national security.
Incidentally, fans of Jack Bauer will also LOVE the exploits of bestselling novelist Vince Flynn's counter-terrorist hero, Mitch Rapp. Start the series at its beginning, with Transfer of Power.
More on all this here.
|
|
