JOHN WICK: 3 IMPORTANT LESSONS (II)

(7 minute read)

The first lesson the thrilling John Wick taught me, was that my choices could make me a slave to my passions; and to be  a slave to one's passions, is to step down from the pedestal of 'humanity' into the abyss of 'animality'--if that's even a real word.
I've made you wait long enough. I hope you haven't lost interest yet, because the two other lessons are equally as important as the first.

Here they are:

2) No Freedom, No Peace:  

I once read a magnificent article about 'beauty', and one of the quotes that have stuck with me from that article are these words: peace is the innate nature of man. I hope these words just struck you the way they struck me. I found them powerful, attractive but elusive. I didn't understand how peace was connected to the nature of man, until I watched John Wick.

John is a character that will eternally desire peace--us too; and for a time, he had it, with his wife. But the moment he sacrificed his freedom on the altar of revenge, he lost it. Do you understand what I mean?

Ask yourself, have you ever seen a caged animal happy? No, seriously. The lions at the zoo, the dogs behind iron bars, the chickens in a cage at the back of your house--are they happy or content with their confinement? Do you think they would prefer a cage to the great outdoors?

I own five dogs (yes, you read correctly), and I have trained more, and one thing I have noticed is that the only animal who isn't agitated when locked in a cage, is one that has been 'broken'.

Freedom and peace are attached to each other. They are reverse sides of the same coin. No freedom, no peace. No peace---according to that quote---no human (by this I mean the person would be a distorted human).

And now for the final lesson.

3) Animal Brutality is the Mark of Psychopaths:

Do you find this title a little--well--detached from the other two? It really does seem a bit of a leap doesn't it? Trust me, it'll make perfect sense in a minute.

When I was a teenager, I spent at least one year consistently watching the Crime and Investigation channel on DSTV with my mum. Aside from the fact that we both became paranoid, I noticed an interesting trend in some of the worst criminals. Many of them had a history of animal brutality.

A boy of ten who kills a mouse today, and snaps a cat's neck the next year, grows up to snap the arms, legs and necks of blonde twenty-somethings every first Monday of the month. Crazy isn't it? Allow me show you the connection.

Anyone who derives pleasure in killing something has a distorted nature. The desire alone shows an absence of inner peace, and a need to be flooded by powerful emotions to fill the uncomfortable absence within.

The fool we talked about last time, Iosef Tarasov, is one such person. Even though the movie didn't give us the background of his life, I can easily invent it. The motivation for his idiotic theft of John's car, the even more idiotic battery of the man and murder of his dog came from a desire for power, which the fool obviously had; because he had grown up in the shadow of his powerful assassin father. And precisely because of this shadow, Iosef lacked the physical capacity for a decent fist fight.

In summary: no control over passions= no freedom, no freedom =no peace, no peace=distorted nature, a distorted nature gives rise to distorted actions, and the enormity of these distorted actions are seen in the most infamous criminals of all time e.g Jack the Reaper.

Do you still think this idea is far-fetched? Consider this:

CNN once ran a story on a group of poultry workers who took satisfaction in popping the eyes of the chickens with pins. What do you think those boys who delighted in such a practise would grow up to do to their wives?

We should all learn from John Wick. It's important.

Your perseverance is a compliment. Thank you for reading. The French and Igbo versions will be posted later. I'll be glad to see what you think about this article, in the comment section.

Iyare Esohe Ewaenosa