1. This year was my first time reading The Little Prince, at least in full (I’d read sections of it before). That has already become one of my Golden Books; one of the most beautiful, dream-like descriptions of love and innocence that I’ve ever read. It’s short, but as dense as solid gold.

2. “And what good does it do you to own the stars?”
“It does me the good of making me rich.”
“And what good does it do you to be rich?”
“It makes it possible for me to buy more stars, if any are discovered.”
…
“”I myself own a flower,” he continued his conversation with the businessman, “which I water every day. I own three volcanoes, which I clean out every week (for I also clean out the one that is extinct; one never knows). It is of some use to my volcanoes, and it is of some use to my flower, that I own them. But you are
of no use to the stars . . .”
The businessman opened his mouth, but he found nothing to say in answer. And the little prince went away.

3. One of the ideas built into the story is that Saint-Exupery’s ability to understand and convey the Little Prince is hampered by the fact that he “has had to grow old” and so is not as innocent or good as he used to be as a child. That is to say, encounter goodness is not just a matter of meeting it, but of being receptive to it. One must first have the capacity to ‘take in’ something before one can benefit from it. Saint-Exupery cannot draw the Prince or his world as well as he might have (or give him quite what he wants) because his ‘career as an artist’ was cut short by unsympathetic grownups, forcing him to turn to flying. Which is to say, his connection with the world of innocence and love is reduced, even if not eliminated.

This is, of course, one answer to why Salvation is not universal. To benefit from what is good, one must be able to receive it. “To him that has, more will be given, while to him that has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Many, perhaps most people, simply wouldn’t be able to take Heaven; they have no capacity for it. Those who cannot receive goodness themselves can only spoil it. “Given not what is holy to dogs and cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot.”

4. This also, by the way, is something that bugs me about some superhero stories (especially the ending of My Hero Academia): the insistence on offering mercy long past the point where it could be beneficial.

Now, with someone like Batman or Superman, their rule against killing is an acknowledgment of their fundamentally subordinate place in society. The government has a monopoly on violence. Superheroes remain citizens doing good and not usurpers of the sovereign authority by the fact that they do not execute justice themselves, but leave it to the courts.

However, in the climax of MHA, we reach a point where characters refuse to use lethal force and keep trying to offer mercy and understanding to insane villains who are threatening not only their lives, but the lives of their friends and innocent civilians. It’s at that point where I think a line has been crossed and we are no longer showing commendable forbearance, but moral weakness. It is good to offer mercy, and it should always be granted when asked for, but not to the point of prioritizing the criminal’s life or salvation over the lives of the innocent.

5. Some might cite the example of Sam sparing Gollum, or Frodo sparing Saruman at the end of The Lord of the Rings. But the difference there is that Gollum asks for mercy, that he may live just a few minutes longer, and at that moment he is in no position to harm Sam (though Sam knows he could still cause them harm in the near future). Saruman doesn’t ask for mercy, but again, at that moment he’s in no position to cause Frodo or his people any further harm.

On the other hand, in MHA, the villains are very much in the superior positions and are actively trying to kill as many people as possible while explicitly rejecting offers of mercy and understanding from heroes, and yet the heroes continue to insist upon their receiving it while refraining from using lethal force because they feel sorry for them. That, to me, is where the idea gets taken too far and stops being virtuous.

“We should knock [a madman] down and pity him afterward.”
-Dr. Johnson

6. “Salus populi suprema lex esto” – “The well-being of the people shall be the supreme law.” -Cicero

“Pax omnium rerum tranquilitatus ordinis.” – “The peace of all things is the tranquility of order.” -St. Augustine

These are the two core axioms of politics.

7. On that note, we really need to stop asking whether something is or is not a ‘Right’ and instead start asking whether it is helpful or harmful to the community.