To ask moral questions is to recognize that there is a difference between morality and immorality. Only one species has that capacity, homo sapiens. For our species the world is black and white and a million shades of gray. Existence for species that have not the capacity is amoral and monochromatic. The minds that created Breaking Bad ask moral questions, ergo they recognize the difference. They are human beings.
Yet, through eleven episodes of season two the moral questions asked go unanswered; the line drawing is a sleight of hand that demonstrates that there are no lines. For through eleven episodes of season two every character is painted the same color. Marie shoplifts, Badger's criminal defense lawyer is a criminal lawyer; the Mexican restaurant chain's owner is the criminal lawyer's meth chain whale; Walt creates the purest, most addictive form of a substance that is (now, the creators say) illegal and immoral--it ruins people's lives, sometimes ends their lives. Walt ruins the lives even of his wife and handicapped son, with Skyler going into labor to deliver into Walt's World a daughter. Ah, innocence at last. Not so fast. A 10 year-old riding a bicycle murders Combo, put up to it by adults in a rival drug enterprise. Little Holly is the fruit of the poisonous tree of Walt and Skyler, who last episode showed her own true color, gray, by leaving her employ with Beneke Fabricators Inc. when she discovers financial improprieties that could land boss, and soon to be lover Ted, in prison--and then returns minutes after driving off. "We manufacture things here," Ted says by way of explanation when he is caught. "We employ people. Business is bad, I've got the IRS on my ass. I'm not going to let this business go down." Walt too manufactures things; he also has the authorities on his ass; he too could end up in prison. See? Is the point that members of our species are all the same shade of gray, an equal mixture of black and white? If so, it is an intellectually dishonest and morally barren point.We are not. No one of us is snow white or jet black but there are discernible shades of gray. Pose questions. Answer them. Draw lines. Do not make the lines you have drawn--andthus recognize as lines--disappear.
They do introduce a deus ex machina. Moral entity, the deus. But machines are not moral, ergo God as machine is not a moral entity. The deus ex machina is chemical, which is also neither good nor bad but merely is, chemotherapy. Chemo shrunk chem teacher Walt's tumor by 80%. A new lease on life! Lives are moral entities. "Man is the sum of the things he has done, and the choices he made in his life." Walt choose immorality and illegality. After getting the "good" news he goes into a bathroom to vomit and then dents the paper towel dispenser by punching it several times. In his celebratory toast at his home: "When I got my cancer diagnosis I thought 'Why me?' When I got the news that I was in remission I asked myself the same question." At the same celebration Walt pours 16 year-old Walt, Jr., aka Flynn, three glasses of tequila--in front of DEA agent Hank. Alcohol: a chemical substance that once was illegal, now is legal, but still illegal for those under 21 years of age; meth: once legal, now illegal; which alcohol causes Walt, Jr., aka Flynn to throw up in the swimming pool; just as Walt's chemotherapy cocktail causes him to throw up. The doctors recommend surgery now that the tumor is no longer inoperable. "How much will that cost?" "$170,000-$200,000." "We can do that." Walt. Skyler looks incredulously at her husband who initially didn't want to put the family through the financial hardship of chemotherapy. Surgery gives Walt a new lease on life as drug lord. I'm sorry, was there a moral question being posed?
As moral creatures we must draw lines and for our convenience the law draws them for us. No, laws are not identical with morality and should not be mixed up with morality but they do provide an approximate guide, close enough for government work, to what society has determined to be in the best interest of all; yes, it is often difficult to draw lines and the lines the law draws are not infrequently erased, they are the best an imperfect species can do. Yes, the difference between legality and illegality--and, mixing the two up now, between morality and immorality--is often a matter of degree, as our deus distinguished ten commandments from others; as the same entity proscribed seven particular sins (moral things, sins) as deadly; as there are degrees of felonies, which can land you in prison, which are distinguished by degree from misdemeanors which do not land you in prison; as the difference between ice and boiling water is a matter of degree. Perhaps you are one of those, as was the designated fall guy in episode ten, who prefers prison to freedom; or one like Walt who sees "different kinds of prison," who risks the one with gray bars over the one with broad lawns. We all must choose.
Yet, through eleven episodes of season two the moral questions asked go unanswered; the line drawing is a sleight of hand that demonstrates that there are no lines. For through eleven episodes of season two every character is painted the same color. Marie shoplifts, Badger's criminal defense lawyer is a criminal lawyer; the Mexican restaurant chain's owner is the criminal lawyer's meth chain whale; Walt creates the purest, most addictive form of a substance that is (now, the creators say) illegal and immoral--it ruins people's lives, sometimes ends their lives. Walt ruins the lives even of his wife and handicapped son, with Skyler going into labor to deliver into Walt's World a daughter. Ah, innocence at last. Not so fast. A 10 year-old riding a bicycle murders Combo, put up to it by adults in a rival drug enterprise. Little Holly is the fruit of the poisonous tree of Walt and Skyler, who last episode showed her own true color, gray, by leaving her employ with Beneke Fabricators Inc. when she discovers financial improprieties that could land boss, and soon to be lover Ted, in prison--and then returns minutes after driving off. "We manufacture things here," Ted says by way of explanation when he is caught. "We employ people. Business is bad, I've got the IRS on my ass. I'm not going to let this business go down." Walt too manufactures things; he also has the authorities on his ass; he too could end up in prison. See? Is the point that members of our species are all the same shade of gray, an equal mixture of black and white? If so, it is an intellectually dishonest and morally barren point.We are not. No one of us is snow white or jet black but there are discernible shades of gray. Pose questions. Answer them. Draw lines. Do not make the lines you have drawn--andthus recognize as lines--disappear.
They do introduce a deus ex machina. Moral entity, the deus. But machines are not moral, ergo God as machine is not a moral entity. The deus ex machina is chemical, which is also neither good nor bad but merely is, chemotherapy. Chemo shrunk chem teacher Walt's tumor by 80%. A new lease on life! Lives are moral entities. "Man is the sum of the things he has done, and the choices he made in his life." Walt choose immorality and illegality. After getting the "good" news he goes into a bathroom to vomit and then dents the paper towel dispenser by punching it several times. In his celebratory toast at his home: "When I got my cancer diagnosis I thought 'Why me?' When I got the news that I was in remission I asked myself the same question." At the same celebration Walt pours 16 year-old Walt, Jr., aka Flynn, three glasses of tequila--in front of DEA agent Hank. Alcohol: a chemical substance that once was illegal, now is legal, but still illegal for those under 21 years of age; meth: once legal, now illegal; which alcohol causes Walt, Jr., aka Flynn to throw up in the swimming pool; just as Walt's chemotherapy cocktail causes him to throw up. The doctors recommend surgery now that the tumor is no longer inoperable. "How much will that cost?" "$170,000-$200,000." "We can do that." Walt. Skyler looks incredulously at her husband who initially didn't want to put the family through the financial hardship of chemotherapy. Surgery gives Walt a new lease on life as drug lord. I'm sorry, was there a moral question being posed?
As moral creatures we must draw lines and for our convenience the law draws them for us. No, laws are not identical with morality and should not be mixed up with morality but they do provide an approximate guide, close enough for government work, to what society has determined to be in the best interest of all; yes, it is often difficult to draw lines and the lines the law draws are not infrequently erased, they are the best an imperfect species can do. Yes, the difference between legality and illegality--and, mixing the two up now, between morality and immorality--is often a matter of degree, as our deus distinguished ten commandments from others; as the same entity proscribed seven particular sins (moral things, sins) as deadly; as there are degrees of felonies, which can land you in prison, which are distinguished by degree from misdemeanors which do not land you in prison; as the difference between ice and boiling water is a matter of degree. Perhaps you are one of those, as was the designated fall guy in episode ten, who prefers prison to freedom; or one like Walt who sees "different kinds of prison," who risks the one with gray bars over the one with broad lawns. We all must choose.
