"A Gun to Your Head is a Gun to My Head"

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Thanks to Old Hundred for the great post title.

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When I read "Black Mass" several years ago, it was with the intent of simply reading some recent history of the place that we had lived in for three years. I did not anticipate discovering a much deeper truth about the nature and essence of "politics". The boundary lines were not just blurred between the mob and the FBI, they simply didn't exist. And sure, there were good guys and bad guys and in-between guys, but it didn't matter which one you were, because everyone was tied to something or someone else - an alliance (often tied to deeper alliances) - that prevented honesty, transparency, and integrity, because that shit will get you tossed back down to the bottom of the ladder quicker than the mob will throw you off the roof of a high rise. Maybe you remember what happened to Martin Sheen in "The Departed"?

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"There are few things more fundamentally encouraging and stimulating than seeing someone else die."

I chose "Paths of Glory" for our Lenten Film Series, so that we might suffer the reality of politics - so that we might enter into a time of lament - knowing that the outcome of political relationships and political decisions are most often division and war, not democracy and peace - particularly in a presidential election year. I also chose it so that we might be reminded of the law-abiding political context in which Jesus Christ was crucified.

Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.


The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.


“What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.


They all answered, “Crucify him!”


“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.


But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”


When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

A political relationship is not an honest relationship. Rank and position define power and authority in political relationships, meaning inequality is the foundation for how those relationships are understood, which is why an alliance (political party) is so necessary, even when it binds and gags. Interestingly, when Col. Dax tries to break through the inequality with integrity, it is awkwardly (though not inappropriately) assumed that Dax's hidden agenda is to climb rank.

General Broulard: Colonel Dax, you're a disappointment to me. You've spoiled the keenness of your mind by wallowing in sentimentality. You really did want to save those men, and you were not angling for Mireau's command. You are an idealist... and I pity you as I would the village idiot. We're fighting a war, Dax, a war that we've got to win. Those men didn't fight, so they were shot. You bring charges against General Mireau, so I insist that he answer them. Wherein have I done wrong?

Colonel Dax: Because you don't know the answer to that question. I pity you.

David Ehrenstein also questions Dax's idealism..."Kubrick makes it abundantly clear that Dax is the hero of the film, with Douglas—in a wonderfully disciplined performance—railing against injustice. But at the same time Kubrick adds an element of doubt. Is Dax, the passionate, sincere, “good” officer, at heart all that different from the “evil old men” he despises? Brave and forthright as he may be, isn’t Dax more than a little foolish in thinking some semblance of “truth” or “justice” might be wrested from the organized insanity of war?"



I like Col. Dax. I want to believe that we should be more than a little foolish by interrupting (with honesty and integrity) our various levels of structure that we build for ourselves, from our family unit, to our religious institutions, our economy, our system of education, and our overtly political government - even when there is no inherent semblance of Truth to be seen. With that, we should be aware of a notable judge in town that has opened an unseen door for hope and possibility inside the municipal courts. According to his story (below), he got bored, decided to invite God into the structure, then suddenly found himself "restoring justice"...

Judge Paul M. Herbert, Franklin County Municipal Court from R. York Moore on Vimeo.

Maybe if we enter into a time of lament and invite God into our boredom - our eyes might be opened and we might suddenly recognize the sand beneath the downtown skyline - and maybe we will see a door of opportunity that no one else can see.

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