Making The "Paragon Choices‪"‬ Storytime with GamerDude

GamerDude's recent first viewing of the classic movie Taxi Driver prompted this episode about making the "good guy" choices. He talks about how society in general, and he in particular, used to focus on the good guy - Superman - as the hero in films, stories and life, and how the world has evolved to the point where now, the Joker is the hero. He talks about how Taxi Driver, one of the first anti-hero movies, and The Godfather, one of the first movies where gangsters were not shown as purely villainous, helped change society's views on "good guys" and "doing the right thing."

He talks about being brought up to "do right," and revisits the story of how he found a $10 bill on the street as a kid, and turned it into the police, because it was the right thing to do. He talks about how the default of most people when he was growing up was to do the "right thing," but over time, a selfishness has replaced the willingness to do the right thing in favor of a "what's in it for me?" attitude. He talks about how doing the right thing is not always convenient, but the overall benefit generally outweighs any minor inconvenience.  He talks about how this selfishness has changed society in personal, business and political settings, and how "getting away with something" is more important to some people than doing the right thing.  GamerDude also talks about the satisfaction he gets simply by doing the right thing, and can't understand people who make the choice to hurt, betray or cheat others.