Chaos is the enemy of society and humanity. Chaos breeds death and destruction and humans, as a rule, seem to appreciate having long and secure lives. One of the better commentaries on order versus chaos that I’ve come in contact with lately is "Captain America: Civil War", a movie that raises excellent questions about how justice should be preserved and carried out (warning: spoilers below).
The crux of the movie, the sticking point that I want to examine, is simple: was Captain America, who defied a law he saw as corrupt and turned on the Avengers, justified in his actions? Or was Iron Man in the right when he stood for order and justice against his friend?
To examine what Civil War has to say about order and chaos, we have to first take a step back and look at the Avengers for what they are: a group of superhuman people tasked with preserving order and protecting humanity from the chaos of the world. They make bad guys answer to the crime of trying to destroy the stability of society; however, they do not answer to anyone. They are loose cannons and, as presented at the start of Civil War, have done some pretty destructive things. The driving conflict of the movie is a debate within the Avengers over whether or not to sign rules governing the Avengers; whether or not the Avengers should submit to an authority that will attempt to control them and their destructive force.
Iron Man, wracked with guilt over the collateral damage of previous Avengers missions, leads the faction that signs, while Captain America refuses to, and leads a faction of Avengers against the regulation. In the end, though, both sides prove that the Avengers need to be controlled as their actions are far too irresponsible for the level of power that they wield: Captain America goes rogue to save his disturbed childhood friend Bucky Brooks, while Iron Man ends up discarding his philosophy of law and order and goes full on vigilante against Captain America and Brooks when it turns out that Brooks killed Iron Man’s parents.
What does this say about order and chaos though; why do we care about this in a world where superheroes aren’t always popping out from behind the next building? Because it provides a valuable lesson on the importance of laws and rules in society. People do not control themselves. It’s magnified in Civil War because the characters are larger than life, but the lesson fits everyday humanity too. We have no problem trying to do the right thing, but we don’t control ourselves well. There’s a reason ancient societies, like the Greeks, instituted laws requiring monetary recompense be given to those wronged—they knew that without laws, anger and the need for justice would consume people, result in wars, and potentially destroy society.
Captain America flaunts the law because he believes it to be the right thing to do; however, his actions end up ripping the Avengers apart from the inside. He takes the law into his own hands, and all it results in is mayhem, destruction, and the death of friendships. Were the rules governing the Avengers going to properly govern them? Maybe, maybe not. However, in a broader sense, society requires laws to function—inventors must feel safe when creating their own ideas, factory owners must be sure that their factories won’t be vandalized, and individual people need be assured that stepping out of their front door doesn’t open them up to being attacked. Law is required to preserve peoples’ right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, because there seems to always be a person out there willing to violate someone else’s rights to improve their own happiness.
So with all due respect to Captain America, I have to conclude that he was in the wrong. Maybe his actions were taken for the right reasons, but they were the wrong actions. Unless a system of laws is irreparably broken, which didn’t seem to be the case with these rules governing the Avengers, stepping outside of it on your own personal vendetta does nothing but promote conflict and chaos, which is what the Avengers are supposed to protect against and, ultimately, is the greatest enemy of civilized society.
