"If someone's amoral, they're beyond good or bad -- they just
don't care, they don't even see good or bad. "
The most powerful description of amorality is Machiavelli's
_The Prince_. The man Machiavelli describes cares a great
deal--his mission is the unification of Italy. He's a lion
and a fox, but not simply for his own benefit, or he'd fail.
He is indifferent to good and bad, but he is rational, not a
psychopath. He is no Marlow, but sometimes Marlow is both
lion and fox, although he is no predator
"As you pointed out, Jim, it's so frigging obvious how much
Marlowe cares about ethics and morality and obsesses so much
over the difficult choices he has to make that I too am
thunderstruck. . . .An amoral person isn't someone who just
occasionally commits an immoral (or even just an illegal)
act."
The discussion was not about whether Marlowe was an amoral
person--its frigging obvious that he cares about right and
wrong. My original point was that, given who and what he was
dealing with, he had to make amoral decisions at times. And I
think he does not like himself for doing so.Like when--out of
necessity--he does not come out of his hiding place when Lash
Canino confronts and kills little Harry Jones.
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