The “Bad Guys”

Its striking to hear a grown man say something as elementary as “the bad guys.” I suppose it’d be even more so if they said something like “bandit” or “robber.” But even still, “bad guys” is just not real life to me, and yet that’s exactly what my buddy in law enforcement says- “we caught a bad guy today.” As I noted this, another friend reminded me that Jocko Willink, former Navy Seal, refers to them the same when he’s speaking of “the bad guys” in Afghanistan. It seems to be a common expression in the world of “good guys,” but not so much mine. 

Having two young boys in my house, I’m often reminded of this language when we use our imagination in the back yard. There are those on the one team- team “good guys.” Then there are those on the other team- team “bad guys.” But at my work, there are no bad guys that I can identify or label. On social media, there may be people I disagree with, but sheesh- I don’t call them the “bad guys.” Somewhere between childhood and adulthood we’re robbed of that kind of black and white language and are left with some smeared gray that leaves us questioning everything. Everything except ourselves, that is. If we know anything, it’s that we are indeed “the good guys.”

No matter where we fall politically or socioeconomically, we are right. We are either right because we know what we are not, or we are right because we understand circumstances more fully. There are some that would say humbly that they’re not right. They know there is always someone in the room smarter than themselves. But even that person, when it comes to loading the dishwasher of folding a bath towel, is right. We are a people of rightness. We’ve been afforded that, it’s our … our luxury, for a lack of a better word.

But now hold on a minute. If we are for sure right, then doesn’t that make them also for sorta right? I mean sure, they don’t think like us, but dog-gone-it- they know they don’t think like us and somehow they still sleep at night. And yes- we do have experience here and over there, but it appears they too have lived in an occupied space or two where they observed a quite different reality. And that’s just baffling that they would do that. Don’t they know of here or over there?

By default, someone must be wrong. We must settle the cosmic tie and squash the moral stalemate. Objectively, there must be something to point to other than ourselves and our own north pointing compass. If we say just “good” wins, then we already established that argument crumbles quickly. His good could be quite bad for my good, and we can’t both be right. If we say “greater good” wins, then minorities, by definition, would lose every time. If we say “love” wins, then that too presents a problem when one’s love is quite bad for another’s, and boundaries and legal restraint must be drawn. And if we say “consenting love” wins, or “free love,” then something that used to be coveted and held in the highest value, suddenly becomes cheap and disposable. 

So where has this left us? Are we “bad guys” for choosing our own good? Are we the bad guys for fighting for the greater good? Am I really suggesting that we are bad for choosing what we love? 

Yes. Because who are we? 

There are bad guys, but maybe the best indicator is the one who insists he’s the good guy. Good guys don’t insist much, but when they do, it’s bigger than themselves. Bad guys are spotted in difference. Good guys are spotted in deference. Bad guys tell you the answer that is right for them. Good guys believe that there is a right answer to the problem, but maybe more importantly, a right time to share it. Bad guys look to themselves as the final authority. Good guys look to something Greater. Bad guys make the story about themselves. Good guys know The Story isn’t. 

Perhaps it is that black and white after all. Maybe, and I’m not saying I’m right, but maybe the problem is we just enjoy all that smeared gray.