Compromise and Civil War: Where to Draw the Line

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I have to say, I enjoyed this movie (see the trailer here) because of the characters and the effects, not really because of the plot. For one thing, the villain’s plan seems awfully shaky; it basically involves making everybody feel depressed, which is not going to hold up if an actual threat appears (cue Infinity War). But mainly, I was too busy trying to figure out how I felt about the arguments on both sides.
So what are the arguments? First, let’s talk about Steve (Captain America). His argument is very straightforward: personal loyalties and virtues, individuals, win the day. You can’t trust the system with too much power, and if you can help people, you always should, even if that means going against the system. Go with your gut. This point of view is traditionally American, and it resonates deeply with most of us.
Tony (Ironman)’s main point, informed by the huge amounts of collateral damage already brought by the Avengers, is that people with huge amounts of power should not be allowed to do as they please with it; good or bad, they must be limited by some type of system. This may limit the good they can do, but it will, on the whole, be the safer option, as well as recognizing the rights of those less powerful who don’t want their affairs meddled in, even by people trying to be heroes. Tony offers a strong response to Steve’s argument. Sometimes you can’t do what feels right in the moment; you have to look at the larger picture, or you’ll harm more than you help. And people have a right to refuse your help; you can’t force it on them.
The main problem I have with Tony’s argument is that, while it seems to be more practically-minded than Steve’s, it just doesn’t work. The UN is not set up to run something like the Avengers. If we are unwilling to give control of the Avengers to the Avengers, we should be just as unwilling to make them the super-police force of a vague global panel (these 117 countries are not going to be voting every time the Avengers head out). Besides, what about all the other super-powered people around?
So no, I would not sign the accords. Take it from someone who just finished her thesis on, among other things, international just war legislation: no one has that sort of jurisdiction over a non-state actor. However, the country hosting the non-state actor, and the country whose territory they are entering, do have the authority to kick them out. I don’t think anyone should be able to tell the Avengers when to act, but at least reasonably democratic countries should have their borders respected, and there should be some sort of accountability in place to prohibit the Avengers from, say, taking over the world.
All this means that I come down on Steve’s side in the airport battle. The UN doesn’t have the authority to tell Steve and his team to stop, nor does it have the jurisdiction to keep them from leaving (although Russia might have the right to keep them from entering). So Tony is overstepping his authority in trying to prevent them from leaving. He has every right to duke it out with them as a private citizen, but not the right to moral censure he seems to think – especially since Steve’s argument that he “can’t turn away when someone is in trouble” is the exact same argument Tony accepts from Peter Parker (Spiderman) as his reason for superhero-ing.
These are the explicit arguments of the movie, but the very concept of this argument, and how it’s handled, leads to much larger questions: How much credibility does ‘thinking you’re right’ give you; what if two different beliefs of what’s right can’t be reconciled? How much power does an individual have to act against the system? And most disturbing: can nobody be in the wrong, and people still get killed? Where should it stop? As someone who never fits in properly with the system, but also happens to work for the government, I’ve put a lot of thought into these questions. I’ll be addressing them in my next post.
Whose side are you on, and why? Let me know in the comments!