NARRATOR Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz" is one the greatest comedy films ever made. Not only is it a brilliant send-up of classic action movies like Point Break and Bad Boys II; and a masterwork of writing, editing, and visual humor... It is also an incredible satirical look at what happens when some people decide they know whats best for everyone (~01:01:00.00 "big plans") and justify their actions in the name of "The Greater Good". NWA "The Greater Good!" "Shut it!" NARRATOR And that's what I want to talk to you about today. Hot Fuzz raises a question few people ever stop to seriously ask: What is "the Greater Good"? TITLE: The Greater Good of Hot Fuzz NARRATOR It sounds like such an intuitive idea, but it's not really that simple. NARRATOR In Hot Fuzz... Oh, wait... There are going to be a ton of spoilers ahead, so consider yourself warned. In Hot Fuzz, the central conflict is between London Police Sargent Nicholas Angel and the meddlesome busybodies who control a sleepy country village. (01:29:30.00) Sandford: The Community That Cares. Angel is the kind of by-the-book police officer that even people skeptical of the cops would like. He's smart, cool under pressure, and extremely competent. CHIEF INSPECTOR (Film: 00:04:57.00) "You're making us all look bad." NARRATOR For Angel, what starts as a demotion to a boring new job in the middle of nowhere immediately takes a turn for the weird. Although Sandford appears to be crime-free and continually wins the "Village of the Year" award, there's something just... off... about the whole place. SKINNER "I'm a slasher... of prices" NARRATOR Yet, when mysterious "accidents" start happening to the people in town, nobody but Sargent Angel is particularly concerned. THE ANDYS "Not everything is murder... accidents" TOM WHEELER (00:18:29.00) "Neighborhood Watch Alliance... We run a very tight ship here... Living Statue/Goose." NARRATOR As Sandford's idyllic veneer falls away, Angel starts putting the pieces together. SARGENT ANGEL [Rant about murder to other officers] NARRATOR Now look, I know what you're thinking. SARGENT ANGEL What does any of this have to do with the greater good?! ("The Greater Good") Everything. See, the twist is that instead of preventing crime, the Neighborhood Watch Alliance has just been killing people for decades in order to keep Sandford the way they want it to be... Defending their actions by claiming it's all for... yeah... the greater good. NWA (01:20:00.00) The greater good scene NARRATOR It's easy to see the absurdity of murdering people in the name of the greater good ("The greater good") in a movie like Hot Fuzz, because the framing is ridiculous. BROADBENT [Something ridiculous] NARRATOR But the truth is, people have rationalized all kinds of insane things for the same reasons forever. And I'm not just talking about the sort of universally horrifying examples like what you see in communist countries where the government strips away people's property or forces them into labor camps all for the supposed benefit of "society"... NARRATOR There are actually plenty of major examples in the US, like the early Progressive support for Eugenics and forced sterilization or the Conservative backlash against interracial and gay marriage. And going back farther, most of the worst parts of our history -- slavery and segregation, the Trail of Tears, Japanese Internment during WWII -- all came with the same justification. NWA "The Greater Good." NARRATOR And there's a ton of laws still on the books, designed to shape society for... ("The Greater Good") Public dress codes, Even the stuff most people think is not that bad, like occupational licensing, zoning restrictions, or anti-smoking laws are based in the same kind of utilitarian thinking. At the core of all of this is the idea that individual people's interests and values just aren't that important. SOMETHING ELSE GOES HERE. NARRATOR And really... What we should learn from this is that as positive and well-meaning as the whole thing seems, more often than not the "greater good" isn't a reflection of what's best for everyone, but of what's best for the people in power. NWA (00:23:32.00) "Welcome to the weekly meeting of the Neighborhood Watch Alliance... Living Statue" NARRATOR If you stop and think about it, this actually makes a lot of sense. As much as we might all want to believe that there's one unifying, knowable "good" for a whole society -- a single set of preferences that are best for everyone -- that's just not the case. In reality, everybody has their own unique interests, goals, aspirations, skills, values and ideas. We're all a bit different and those differences can actually make the world a much better place. But what "good" looks like to one person may never be good for another, and there's no way to impose a single set of preferences on the world that works out well for everyone. NWA "...Jugglers!" NARRATOR What I'm really saying here is that apart from being a great movie, Hot Fuzz teaches us that "The Greater Good" isn't so much a clearly definable, real thing as it is a way to say that the ends justify the means. As a result, the values and even the lives of individual people are expendable whenever someone with more power decides that what they want is more important. And as long as people don't think about it too much or fight back, it all kind of works out... But it breaks down pretty quickly when someone challenges the status quo. DR. ARCHER (01:37:18.00) "You and your interfering little friend." NARRATOR Look... No society is going to be perfect and of course different communities will probably always set some rules on what people can do. But perhaps we should at least start with the presumption that everyone should be free to live their lives however they want instead of forcing society to fit our own personal preferences. A single "greater good" for everyone might be a myth, but the good for individual people that comes from tolerating a diverse society where everyone can pursue their own interests without fear of fines, jail, or being killed... isn't.