Thread by @EveKeneinan

So, I’m watching Captain America: Civil War.

Yes, yes, I’m way behind. Shut up.

I’ll probably watch Infinity War in the next day or two and THEN catch Endgame in theaters.

This way, I won’t have to WAIT.

Ha!

Both in the comic version AND in the movie, Captain America is clearly in the right of the “civil war.”

To side with Iron Man, you have to be one of those people who think we can ENGINEER the future—which means ENGINEER human beings—which requires TOTALITARIAN POWER—& we can’t.

We can’t engineer human beings to “fix” society, and even if we could, it would be wrong to do so.

This is the error of all “social planning,” both of old Marxism and contemporary social Marxism/SJWism.

But I want to say something about the STORY.

It’s hard to write a Captain America story in one way, BECAUSE Captain America has very few ethical struggles.

He’s so ethically good, he doesn’t really MAKE mistakes. So he has no tragic flaw to be overcome.

As Aristotle says, you have to have great man with a flaw for there to be dramatic tension. To see a good man suffer is not pleasant; it’s painful.

This exchange sums up Captain America’s moral compass.

So you need SOMEONE ELSE to have the appropriate heroic ethical overcoming in a Captain America movie.

This is done, and done very well, by Black Panther. THIS is the moment of greatest catharsis (at least so far).

Captain America is, in effect, Aristotle’s σπουδαῖος, the man of such ethical virtue that he is a living rule and measure of what is right.

Instead of attempting to formulate an ethical RULE, Aristotle says that the ultimate MEASURE is the σπουδαῖος.

Look to him and do that.

But a consequence of this is that the σπουδαῖος cannot be really grow, since he is, by definition, the ethical incarnate.

Black Panther in Civil War, by renouncing his VERY HUMAN quest for REVENGE—in favor of JUSTICE—grows. Both as a MAN and a HERO.