Light Yagami: Morally Ideal in Theory.
The story of Death Note is commonly identified by the anti-hero that is Light Yagami. He, who attempted to make himself a god and craft a new world for himself to lead, is not actually a moral failure, but rather a failure due only to the corruption which he succumbed to in applying his morally sound plan for the new world. Perhaps, one could argue, that because he attempted to make himself the “god of the new world” and the fact that he was too weak to hold the position, his plan was doomed for failure. But, again, the key point of my concern is the idea that his plan for the world and the methods with which he attempted to change it were not actually morally bankrupt.
In our world, murder is incontrovertibly immoral. This is the first and foremost issue that people have when analyzing Light’s actions. His willingness—enjoyment some could argue (the point is moot)—to use “violence”, rather a willingness to kill, to realize his vision for the future—as well as the fact that his vision of the future included the presence of a necessity to kill deep in its core mechanism. In following, it is standard for watchers to observe a distinct chasm that tears his incredible intelligence from an equally incredible moral intelligence, per se. They say things along the lines of “he is really smart, yea, but has no sense of morals” and items along that line of thought—focusing on the distinction between school/street smarts and moral smarts.
I am here to propose that these smarts are actually the same in origin, and that due to the preset nature in which morals lies within our culture and our upbringing, we fail to see the source of morals as that same necessity from which smarts finds meaning. Morals do not lie in a separate district in the brain as standard intelligences, but rather much deeper within the same one.
But first, let me dispel the second largest group of ‘haters’ which deride Light’s goals and intentions. The religious ones. I am not a hater of religion, but I consider those who argue that Light’s wish to become a god a transgression of the belief of an original and eternal lord; that he wishes to usurp the natural and essential order of things. These people are the most foolish. Consider this: A book, which gives ANYONE the ability to KILL ANYONE whose name and face they know has just fallen down to Earth. Ummmm…. All arguments for Christianity or any other monotheistic faith have just been roflstomped in this universe of the author’s creation, so to speak. This is not our world, our morals and beliefs do not apply perfectly. Be aware of that. If Light was religious, after finding the Death Note he would no longer have been.
Now that that is covered, consider the source of the deepest and most essential moral in the world today: the sanctity of human life. Human life is precious and those who forsake that in favor of murder are moral failures. This moral is not essential to the world, it came from something. People were not born knowing that “it’s wrong to kill that person”. That belief came into the world via necessity. That is to say it was a sort of game theory decision which brought it into being. The tale of the Ring of Gyges elaborates this point well. Morality is not something inherent to the world—and be sure to be aware that we are assuming no religious influence, as we are looking at this in reference to the world of Light Yagami—but the middle ground which develops rules to maintain the best response for humanity as a whole. We only, in a non-religious system, decide that killing is immoral simply because it benefits us most if we do. Likewise for stealing and cheating and lying. We build into our “humanity” these morals as a heritage of intelligently designed rules which provide for the safety of humanity, or ourselves among a world filled with humans, and the survival of our species—an inherent goal of living beings.
In this manner, consider Light Yagami’s morals. He, given this essential Ring of Gyges, chooses to redefine standard morality. The old system is dead. No longer does the world need to rely on this outdated method of survival. He can do it through fear and power alone. He has the power. (It is important for you to try and forget your morals for a little while trying to understand this… his world is not our own… I feel it is necessary to say that I do not condone murder and I am in fact VERY in favor of our current moral system… but I live here in the real world, not in that of the Death Note).
That said, it comes down to number-crunching. What creates the best system, which makes us more happy as a whole… do criminals deserve to be counted in this system? With religion out of the question, human dignity doesn’t really fit into the argument. It is disturbing, but Light’s reality is all he has to deal with. I think we should consider his actions with his situation and world in mind, not our own.
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