Kira's Kingdom

"We'd be better off if the rotten people died." - Kira

For those not on board the anime train Death Note is a supernatural suspense thriller in which the main character seeks to create a better world, by killing people. He uses a notebook from a 'Shinigami' ("death god") to write the names of criminals who then die after having their names transcribed in this 'Death Note.'

Generally speaking I am against capital punishment and using fear to install world peace. However, on any bad day (which today rates rather high on the list) I operate on a very different plane of thought.

Who decides what is justice? Who determines what is moral? You? Some old book that most people never read cover to back?

I have said many times in regards to politics that I don't care at all the vehicle for positive social change. The Democratic Party, The Republican Party, The Green Party ... I really couldn't care less about the branding. All I care about is results. Any political party or movement that can show me they will affect positive change to serious societal issues has my support.

This same pragmatic approach is exactly why in my dark moments I find myself speaking as if I were Kira. I've even been known to throw down some fire & brimstone at the same people who throw it on me. I don't believe in a Hell outside of this living world, but enough readings of the Bible would make anyone start wanting to shove some sulfur and endless torment on the bullies, stalkers, racists, bigots, homophobes and zealots who make it their business to inform us of their vile nature.

Kira's kingdom is a false paradise bathed in blood. Beyond that once the new world was founded, Kira must then die. He could never live as the 'god' of his kingdom for he would be a collection of more mass genocide on his hands than could ever be tolerated in this new utopia.

But my mind wanders on these topics at times, even without the aid of gothic anime shows.

Would this fictional world founded on fear and death be so vastly different from our world of today?

People decide every day that life in this world is not worth living.

Would Kira's kingdom truly be so awful to live in that people would continue to see existence as vile and loathsome?

There is no question in my mind that true peace is not founded on a pile of corpses.

But how long must the world sit bleeding and dying in wait for true peace?

In my experience reality is not a decision between ideology versus ideology, but rather between a destructive status-quo versus a catastrophic realism.

"Two wrongs don't make a right." But this supposes there is anything but "wrong" in the world in the first place. If everything in the world is nothing but "wrong" to begin with then "two wrongs" is just nothing more than the world in motion, and the question becomes only what world will we be left with after the actors have played their parts and exited the stage.

Translation of lyrics from Death Note's closing video:

This single page,

Forever depressing,

A fleeting tactic in the eyes,

Without petition,

Evil against the law,

Chain it in a prison,

Poison in the notebook,

Fear the lust,

Delusion of being deceived,

Perpetually drooling,

Judgment is "crime control" they driveled,

Who has the Rx for that?

A decriminalized world,

A sanctioned world,

Taking heat just like "Pirates of Death,"

Atone with the game of laws,

Billy in despair,

Now it's time for ethics,

Now the unstoppable Eraser Rain,

Billy in despair,

Now it's time for ethics,

Now the unstoppable Eraser Rain,

The unstoppable Eraser Rain.