I’m currently listening to ‘Nameless‘ by Dean Koontz. It it, a nameless clairvoyant with scientifically induced amnesia, and a didactic memory for everything after his memory was wiped, is a vigilante. He is the executor of bad people who have killed others for greed and/or pleasure. He is hired by a tech-savvy team that use cybercrime to confirm that the people they hunt are indeed bad people. Then Nameless exacts justice, often in befitting ways.
I’m not an ‘eye-for-an-eye’ kind of person, I have spent a lot of time as an educator helping students come to peaceful resolutions of issues in positive ways. But something about this book appeals to me. I think some people are beyond reproach. I think there are people in this world that are very bad, and they know it, and they prey on the weakness and kindness of others.
Recently we have had gang wars in Vancouver spilling out in the streets. An innocent person died in a drive by ‘hit’ of a known gang member. And a gang member was targeted and killed at the airport, leading to a car chase with guns being fired later. These gang members have had a complete disregard for innocent people in the wake of their war.
Now I’m not saying it’s vigilante time, but rather, I’m wondering what should be done when these known criminals disregard public safety and endanger peaceful citizens? It’s a case where they are playing by completely different rules than law-abiding citizens, and causing significant harm to the community. Even if they are caught, it is often only after they have done further harm to innocent people.
I think some people are intentionally evil. They choose to do bad things, then get caught up in a world where others around them disregard the value of the life of others. There are also evil people who get pleasure out of hurting others, including children, in violent and disturbing ways.
Listening to this book, I feel no remorse for the killers that are getting their just dues. I don’t think that they should be arrested and put on trial instead. Perhaps I should. But this fictional book is making me question what we should do with people who skirt the law and do truly evil things? It’s interesting that the characters in this book can pull out of me a character trait I didn’t know I had. I have never seen myself as approving of a vigilante, but I find this book enjoyable… I see justice in a serial child molester, or a doctor that preys on the elderly, or a killer who stalks campers in remote areas, meeting their demise after learning that they have been found out.
I think there are some truly evil people in the world, and they don’t always deserve to live after what they have done to others. That said, I’m not convinced that vigilante justice is something I’d like to see played out in the real world on a regular basis… I’ll just go back to my book and enjoy it there.
