The Black Panther Paradox

Spoiler alert. If you haven’t seen the movie, don’t read this column.

I’ll keep this brief. I took my kids to see The Black Panther on Monday. At the end of the movie (after the credits), there was an embedded a political/spiritual message about unity and brotherhood. It was a good message, something I work toward every day, but the paradox wasn’t lost on me.

From Civil War to Promises of Unity

There stood a king—who had achieved the throne through a line of succession, not democracy, had endured a fierce battle to secure the throne, and had just survived a civil war in his home country—offering to teach the citizens of the world how to live together in peace and harmony.

Do you see the paradox?

One could counter that by saying that his (fictional) country had some impressive technology to share and ideological aspirations, but that hardly rose to the level of “let’s teach the world to act like we do.”

I had this conversation with both my kids after the movie and tried to explain to them the paradox between brute strength, battles, and weaponry during the bulk of the movie, and the message of peace and unity at the end. It took a few rounds of verbal exchange, but they understood it.

In this age of division and rage, I understand that the moviemakers wanted to make a statement about the need for harmony. I really do. But maybe the right way to make that point would be to make a different movie about radical compassion, the strength of love, and the difficulty of cultivating those elements in human beings.

Unnecessary Paradox

I am not saying that superhero movies can’t make larger political and spiritual points, I am just saying that the paradox this one produced was unnecessary. It would have been more consistent if it hadn’t tried to squeeze in that message at the end. Coherence matters, even in the Marvel universe.

Gudjon Bergmann
Interfaith Minister, Author and Speaker
Founder of Harmony Interfaith Initiative

p.s. I did enjoy the movie for what it was and so did my kids.

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Picture: Pixabay.com CC0 License