I thought the whole point of Death Note was that if you were tempted with the Death Note that you shouldn't fucking use it, no matter how carefully selected or how deserving your targets are. Light develops a god complex because he's allowed to use it without any scrutiny.
The only conceivable ethical use of the Death Note would be if its user were constantly kept in check under some sort of democratic consensus, a hypothetical "people's Death Note". A Death Note user who isn't subjected to constant oppression, surveillance, and scrutiny inevitably becomes a tyrant.
Using authors intent to justify a moral lesson is a vicious circle though.
The only reason Light develops a god complex is because the author says he will. There is no science here, we are not seeing a careful study of many different personalities or cultural/social-economic backgrounds being given a Death Note. No we are seeing one very stereotypical Japanese highschool "genius".
Heck not even political theory is developed or studied here either since everything starts from the very basic point of view of Japanese society where crime and corruption are the biggest problems, not any inherently social/cultural/political foundations of the nation itself.
It is why fictional works should not be the basis for real world analysis and theory.
Another anime that pisses me off so much for this exact reason is Fate/Zero which the reactionary weebs simply think it justifies capitalism realism "see? you can't fix the world that is idealistic!1!!! because humans are flawed and you can't have world peace blah blah". No shit the only reason you can't have "world peace" is because of that concept itself is just liberalism, but most importantly because it is a fictional story bound by the authors vision and will not actual empirical evidence or science. You could definitely use any reasonable amount of power(doesn't have to be an all powerful wish granting device) to create a better and much more peaceful world.
I thought the whole point of Death Note was that if you were tempted with the Death Note that you shouldn't fucking use it, no matter how carefully selected or how deserving your targets are. Light develops a god complex because he's allowed to use it without any scrutiny.
The only conceivable ethical use of the Death Note would be if its user were constantly kept in check under some sort of democratic consensus, a hypothetical "people's Death Note". A Death Note user who isn't subjected to constant oppression, surveillance, and scrutiny inevitably becomes a tyrant.
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Using authors intent to justify a moral lesson is a vicious circle though. The only reason Light develops a god complex is because the author says he will. There is no science here, we are not seeing a careful study of many different personalities or cultural/social-economic backgrounds being given a Death Note. No we are seeing one very stereotypical Japanese highschool "genius". Heck not even political theory is developed or studied here either since everything starts from the very basic point of view of Japanese society where crime and corruption are the biggest problems, not any inherently social/cultural/political foundations of the nation itself.
It is why fictional works should not be the basis for real world analysis and theory. Another anime that pisses me off so much for this exact reason is Fate/Zero which the reactionary weebs simply think it justifies capitalism realism "see? you can't fix the world that is idealistic!1!!! because humans are flawed and you can't have world peace blah blah". No shit the only reason you can't have "world peace" is because of that concept itself is just liberalism, but most importantly because it is a fictional story bound by the authors vision and will not actual empirical evidence or science. You could definitely use any reasonable amount of power(doesn't have to be an all powerful wish granting device) to create a better and much more peaceful world.