Journal #22

Sometimes one's personal ethics and values are more important than the laws and rules in which they are supposed to follow. I believe that sometimes it is in fact okay to break these laws for the common good. This really reminds me of a superhero. Almost every superhero that I can think of does this, and that is destroy something, usually the entire city, to stop some sort of villain. Because they stopped evil from prevailing, the destruction of the city is necessary. I am also reminded of another hero of sorts named Robin Hood. While reading the book, I found that Robin Hood really was not the nice guy that he is usually portrayed as. Contrarily, he was a pretty bad guy. However, he did what he felt was necessary according to his ethics and values. From this, the common expression of steal from the rich to give to the poor came about. I think that in situations like these, it is certainly acceptable to bend the law. I try to remember what kind of situations that I have been in where I felt this was alright, but I do not believe that I have ever really had this kind of thing happen. However, according to my personal set of ethics and values, I believe that something like this could and probably will happen to me at some point in my life. All of this relates to the philosophy of Romanticism. One key belief of this philosophy is that the mind of a child, or a immature and childlike mind, is highly regarded because it is said to be pure. When I think of this, I seem to think that is more to do with naivety, and this is a great example of what I am talking about. Since the child is so naive to the world and maybe the laws, they only really see good and bad. If they are put into a situation where good is the right thing to do, but it may be breaking the law, they will not hesitate to do it simply because it is the right thing to do. I believe that this is the kind of mindset that Romanticism is trying to capture.