I was recently watching Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior—a documentary sent back in time from the near future about the state of the world following a catastrophic global war, a world in which gasoline is the single most precious commodity—and I realized that there is much we can learn from it. For instance, the Humungus teaches us that we cannot cower in the face of terrorists who demand that we give up our rights so as to live in peace.
No, seriously.*
If you've seen the movie, think back to the moment when The Humungus demanded that the dwellers of an oil refinery give up their home and head out for the wasteland. He and his band of killers have them surrounded and makes what is, on the face of it, a rather reasonable case: "There has been too much violence ... too much pain. None here is without sin. But, I have an honourable compromise. Give me the gasoline and I'll spare your lives. Just walk away. I will give you safe passage in the wasteland. ... Walk away and there will be an end to the horror."
Such a small thing: "Just walk away." Just leave. Just give up, roll over, tuck tail. And there are many amongst the peaceful refinery dwellers who would do just that. "It's our only chance," cries Big Rebecca. "It'll be alright. I'll talk to this Humungus. He'd never hurt an asthmatic old man," says The Curmudgeon about the leader of a band that moments before raped and murdered one of their friends.
Others object.
"No! We've worked too hard," the Warrior Woman states. The village's leader, Pappagallo, agrees. "We are human beings. We must maintain our dignity," he says. "Do we wander the wasteland—scavenging? Wake up one morning and find we're just like them—savages? ... We are not barbarians." And part of rejecting barbarism is striving for something better, working for a future that respects the rights they have built. Giving in to terrorists—giving them what they want in the hopes that they'll just leave you alone—is a fool's game. They'll always want a glass of milk.** The peaceful villagers decide to leave, to take the fight to Humungus and his marauders.
So what does The Humungus crisis teach us? To reject the assassin's veto. To spit in the face of barbarism. To understand that some things—our freedoms, our rights, our hopes for the future—are worth dying for. And equally worth killing for..
*Okay, kind of seriously. As in, not-too-terribly seriously. Like, maybe 20 percent seriously.
**That clip comes from Air Force One, a movie that teaches us about the dangers of electing immobile presidents.