THE AMERICAN POSEIDON ADVENTURE

History is replete with examples of bullies who overplay their hand and suffer the consequences. Many of us saw it on the playground as children.  David felled a giant with a simple sling.

Some may recall Colonel Nathan Jessup in A Few Good Men. A man who abused his authority, ordering Marines to punish a fellow Marine he deemed unworthy. Loyal Marines followed orders, resulting in an unintended death. Yet even afterward, Jessup’s narcissism and delusion justified the act, blaming the victim and concealing the truth. His downfall was inevitable, but not before he corrupted those under his command, who believed they were doing the right thing.

Watch Nuremberg, about a young Army psychiatrist, Dr. Douglas Kelley, assigned to evaluate Nazi leaders awaiting the 1946 trials. His focus is Hermann Göring. A man capable of warmth and love toward his family, yet also central to unimaginable cruelty. Kelley comes to understand that Göring was not born a monster. Rather, a series of small, compounding choices, made in loyalty to Adolf Hitler led him down a path of moral collapse.

The film offers two enduring lessons through the words of Robert H. Jackson, the U.S. prosecutor:

“That four great nations… stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to Reason.”

And the warning:

“The law that condemns these defendants today must condemn us tomorrow if we violate it.”

Kelley’s ultimate insight is chilling in its simplicity and apropos for America:

“The only clue to what man can do is what man has done.”

As Robert Frost wrote in The Road Not Taken:

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Which road America takes will depend on us.

VOTE!!!

RESIST!!! & EDUCATE!!!