“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C.S. Lewis
It seems appropriate to state the obvious that I am an incurable Marvel nerd.
Not that Marvel Studios’ wider film franchise needs any additional exposure via armchair examination or other such help in order to continue their box office success…
Still, it bears noting there is something – almost subliminally so – about Marvel’s multi-film antagonist, Thanos, which makes him and this final go-around of Avengers films exceptionally worth watching.
The films’ directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, describe Thanos as “an ecoterrorist.” That only scratches the surface of this nemesis to Marvel’s ragtag band of heroes.
Whether it was their intention or not, the Russo brothers have adapted this character for the big screen in such a way that his ideology (of sorts) reflects multiple dark stretches of political discourse and governmental action in 20th century history – both here in America and abroad.
With his insistence that the universe’s sentient life population has grown too large in relation to the universe’s available resources and drastic measures must be taken in response, the big-screen version of Thanos is a quintessential representative of American Progressivism.
His motivation harkens to a time – 50 years ago – when one contingent of Progressives were actively sounding alarms over the impending over-population crisis facing our world.
Subsequently, Thanos serves as a throw-back to both the early Progressive movement of a century ago – the period when that movement was notably intertwined with the burgeoning eugenics movement in America – and ultimately the brutal Maoist purges of the 1950s and ‘60s.
In merging these sectors of Progressivism from the previous century, the audience is presented with an antagonist who has graduated beyond activism for curbing over-population and has – aglow with self-confidence in the morality of his crusade – committed himself to bringing-about the necessary reductions in population to conform the world (or, rather, the universe) to his narrow view of what constitutes the proper scheme of things.
Thanos is not just a Progressive, he is the Progressive.
So immovably self-convinced is he that he (and, he alone) has the necessary hard answers to a question no one else in the cosmos was even asking, there is no price too high Thanos is willing to force others to pay – especially those who dare stand in his way – in the quest to realize his vision for an orderly, universal population culling.
On a purely intellectual level – given the popular mindset he symbolizes among the ruling political class in our society – the convergence of all these components serves to make Thanos one of the most frightening and unnerving villains in modern cinema…
…and rightfully so.