Hurting People to Save People?

The main moral dilemma of Spy x Family.

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Do the ends justify the means?

The 2022 anime, Spy x Family, handles the perennial moral quandary in a surprisingly mature and nuanced way. The main character is a spy, code-named “Twilight,” who, as part of a rather ridiculous plot conceit, must adopt a little girl to infiltrate a school attended by some major geopolitical figure’s son to preserve global peace.

Wow, that was a long sentence.

Yes, the plot is that byzantine.

Anyway, Twilight’s motivation is entirely pure; he seeks to make a world where “children won’t have to cry.” He is familiar with such a sorry state of affairs personally, having lost his parents to warfare in an apathetic world when he was but a wee lad. But do the purity of Twilight’s intentions and ends sanction jeopardizing the safety, well-being, and happiness of the child whose care he’s immediately charged with?

This is the question posed in my latest Short for the Foundation for Economic Education: Is it OK to Make Kids Cry? I must admit that one of my brilliant co-authors came up with this eye-catching, provocative title—my wit is not quite so sharp (yet!). Anyway, give the video a look-see if you have 60 seconds.

I admit that, in the span of a minute and through the plot of a single show, the Short does not resolve the meta-ethical debate between consequentialists and deontologists. Frankly, if I had infinite ink, time to read, and time to write, I seriously doubt I could proffer a meaningful answer to what morality is, from where it is derived, and how we can know that we’ve accurately identified it.

Perhaps I’ll be ever-so-slightly closer to having a well-reasoned meta-ethical account of individual rights and other (classically) liberal moral priors by the end of college… or at least by the end of my life!