Good Guys and Bad Guys

My 6 year old son saw my World War II soldier models (read: “action figures” — not dolls) and asked about them. (They had been stored behind the sofa, and I had forgotten about them until moving the sofa away from the wall to unplug a lamp.) The specific question that stumped me on an explanation for a 6 year old was, “Which ones are the good guys, and which ones are the bad guys?”

There are four figures: two Americans, two Germans. I tried to explain that they’re soldiers for two different nations, but I stumbled trying to explain the whole “good guy/bad guy” thing as it regards real-life people and situations. His frame of reference comes from things like comic books, toys, and such.

In comic books, there are good guys and there are bad guys. (Actually, this is not always the case. But that’s a whole other post.) Many toys he’s seen and played with, there are distinct and identifiable goods guys and bad guys: the king’s knights are the good guys, and the dragon barbarians are the bad guys. Playground games he plays have good guys and bad guys: the cops are the good guys, and the robbers are the bad guys.

But in real life, the line between good guys and bad guys is not very well drawn. It’s often not even very well understood. Now, I am a believer in Good and Evil; there are truly Good and truly Evil people in the world. But 99% of the normal people aren’t easily explained with those labels. Someone can be nice without being really good, and someone can be a jackass without being really evil. And most people have a little bit of both nice and jackass in them. And then there’s the whole twist of how an evil person can be nice and a good person can be a jackass.

How to explain this concept to a 6 year old? I think I explained it sufficiently for his question, without going deeper than he would understand or care.

When I was young, a new kid moved into our neighborhood—from Germany. I remember the discussion with my friends about whether this new kid was a “good German” or a “bad German”. In our very limited understanding of the world, West Germany was the good side, full of good people, and East Germany was the bad side, full of bad people.

I don’t want my children to only think in this kind of moral dichotomy. I also don’t want them warped by a relativistic morality, either. Molding young minds and hearts is complicated. This kind of thing probably shouldn’t be left up to just anyone who can procreate. (Especially someone who still owns toy soldiers at 40 years old.)

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com