In the 1989 movie, "Casualties of War," Michael J. Fox plays Private Max Eriksson, a soldier in Sergeant Tony Meserve's platoon during the Vietnam War. Sean Penn plays Meserve.
The platoon has been out in the field for quite some time and wants nothing more than to rest in the barracks when they are told that they are going to shortly be sent out again. Meserve decides to find a way for the platoon to have some much needed relaxation.
Once in the field, the platoon, under Meserve's direction, kidnaps and rapes a Vietnamese girl who is later killed during a fire fight. Only Eriksson refuses to participate in the rape. The film is shocking enough without knowing that it's based on a true story.
Eriksson is tormented that he was not able to stop the rape or save the girl's life. Returning to base, he agonizes over whether to report the rape and turn in his fellow soldiers or to say nothing. Compounding Eriksson's dilemma is the fact that Meserve had saved his life on an earlier patrol. Turning in Meserve means turning against someone to whom Eriksson literally owes his life.
While on another patrol with a different platoon, Eriksson comes upon a soldier who has been killed by a booby trap set up by the Viet Cong. A soldier in the platoon advises Eriksson to forget it, suggesting that the dead soldier is simply a casualty of a meaningless war.
Eriksson is horrified by the callousness of the soldier and confronts him. Take a look at the scene, but be warned: There is a graphic image of the dead soldier and curse words are used:
Michael J. Fox, in the person of Eriksson, has presented a dilemma that we all face. We aren't in a war. Yet, in reality, we could die at any moment. Because of our inevitable mortality, does it not matter what we do or, as Eriksson laments, "maybe it matters more than we even know?" Actions have consequences. And, sometimes, we don't stop to consider those consequences because it doesn't seem to matter.
This dilemma is made humorous by Woody Allan in his movie, "Annie Hall." The young protagonist, Alvy Singer, has stopped doing his homework:
Like Alvy Singer's mother and doctor, I might suggest that we just get on with our lives and not question whether our actions matter or not. Except for one little thing that keeps gnawing at me: The answer to that question is critically important and not just in time of war. How that question is answered has real consequences for the people in our lives and, sometimes, for thousands of people we will never meet.
Do you think Bernard Madoff, who led a Ponzi scheme that produced losses of billions of dollars, stopped to question the consequences of what he was doing? Did he care how much it mattered to the people he was deceiving? Do you think that those who created complex financial instruments that led to the mortgage debacle paused in their greed to debate the affect their actions would have on millions of home owners?
On a more personal level, do we wonder if it matters when we blithely throw cigarette butts out our car window or don't pick up after our dog? At the grocery store, do we question if it matters whether our choice is paper instead of plastic? Or plastic instead of paper? When we angrily blow our horn because the car in front of us is going slower than we would like, do we pause to reflect on how it affects the person in that other car? When we gossip about, rather than confront, someone who has offended us, do we stop to consider the consequences on that person's reputation? Does it matter?
As Viktor Frankl writes in "Man's Search For Meaning," “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
Do our actions matter more than we can know? Do we care? We are responsible for the answer to those questions. And the answers matter.
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