“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us it oscillates with the years. And even within the hearts overwhelmed with evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains…an unuprooted small corner of evil.”
Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
If Solzhenitsyn is right, and he is, then there is perhaps no greater representative of humanity than Two-Face, the DC Villain. (Yes I hear your groans, Dear Reader. Bear with me for a moment; perhaps Solzhenitsyn and Two-Face really do belong in the same discussion. Maybe, just maybe Great Books (The Gulag Archipelago) and ComicBooks, (Two-Face: A Celebration of 75 Years) illuminate one another.)
In the most common origin story, Two-Face began life as crusading District Attorney Harvey Dent. While prosecuting a trial of a notorious mob boss, acid is flung at Dent, burning the left half of his face. His personality then splits; one part good and one part evil. In a 1957 story, plastic surgery repairs Dent’s face, but, alas, it gets burned again in exactly the same way (funny coincidence that), prompting the Omniscient Comic Book Narrator Voice to intone, “And it becomes clear that more than Dent’s face has been re-injured! The scar reaches right through to his brain!” Omniscient Comic Book Narrator meet Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
The punchline in this here rumination is that we are all Two-Face. But first the immediate objection: Two-Face has another notable quirk. He makes all his decisions based on the flip of a coin. Faced with a choice, the coin flips, and Heads he does Good, Tails he does Evil. You (probably) don’t do that.
Before you start thinking how much superior you are to Two-Face, ask yourself this: How do you decide to do the evil things you do? You aren’t perfect. Sometimes you do things that you think were wrong. There isn’t even a need for a universal moral code to make this point; pick whatever moral code you personally have for yourself. Sometimes, maybe often, maybe not so often, you do things that violate your own moral code. Why?
Now that you have thought about why you do immoral things, ask yourself this: is it better to do evil by choice or by chance? You choose to do things you think are wrong. Two-Face lets the coin decide for him whether to do something wrong. Which is morally worse?
You and Two-Face are both frequently faced with decision to make, and you both have to decide whether to do Good or Evil. Two-Face will choose Evil half the time, which is (hopefully) more often than you chose to do Evil. But if Two-Face used a 20 sided die and only did evil when a 1 comes up, does that make him any better? If you only do evil 1% of the time, does that make you better?
Like Solzhenitsyn said, the line separating good and evil runs right through your heart. You may like to think of yourself as a good person and all those other people out there as the evil people, but no matter how good you are, there is that evil part of your heart and no matter how evil those others are, there is that good part in their hearts. You are Two-Face. So are They.
At least Two-Face lets a coin decide if he will be evil. You just do evil voluntarily.
How happy are you that you are choosing whether to do good or evil? In a rather clever story from 2008 (“Two-Face Too”), you are put in charge of the ending. There are two possible panels to end the tale. One is the “they lived happily ever after” ending. The other ends with a gunshot and blood and death. Which is the right ending for the story? The story is being told by the Joker; he tells you to flip a coin to find out what happens. Heads, the happy ending. Tails, not so happy.
Take the thought experiment seriously for at least a moment. Do you get to decide how the story ends? Or does the story really only end when you flip a coin and find out the ending? Are you more satisfied with a story where you get to choose the ending or where the ending is decided for you? Note that most stories have an ending decided for you by an author. That never bothered you. Are you satisfied with an ending decided by a coin flip? Or would you rather be in charge of deciding the ending?
That part of you that wants to do evil, to do wrong, to do that thing that is really, honestly, truly just a little tiny bit immoral, what determines when that part of you gets to indulge itself? Story after story, you think how terrible Two-Face is because he flips a coin and does evil half the time. Story after story, you feel a righteous vindication that you are not going around flipping a coin and doing evil. Real day after real day, you just decide on your own with no coin involved to do the wrong thing. Story after story, Two-Face reminds you that you have that evil part in you.
Deep theological waters here. Alas, Batman is not there to save you from your evil ways. Batman is fiction. Kinda makes you wish there was a real savior to save you from yourself, doesn’t it?
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