Somebody’s Got To Be The Good Guy

The more I think about it, It’s A Wonderful Life may have more of an impact on my moral barometer than any teacher or adult figure in my life.  When I would daydream, I thought about lightsabers and swinging on a web from building to building.  I built spaceships out of Legos and when I got older I read weird stories written by weirdos.  But the cornerstone of my values may have come from a Frank Capra Christmas classic.

My brother and I were left alone like wolves in the wilderness, piecing together our personality from the scraps that lay around our neighborhood and on our TV.  When Christmas rolled around, as most of you know, IAWL was repeated on TV dozens of times between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know it by heart. Somewhere, after my twentieth or so viewing as a kid, I think the lessons of the movie stamped themselves on my brain.  They are still there to this day.

George Bailey is a good guy.  He’s not perfect, but he does the right thing.  He does the right thing at almost every turn, even to his detriment.  He shakes off all the things he missed out on, and tries to do right by all the people in his life.  His wife and children, his mother and uncle, his brother and the entire population of Bedford Falls.  We see his sacrifices and they are confirmed when Clarence shows him a life when he was never born.  He gets to see the impact of his life on others on the shittiest night of his life.
            He has to do these things even though he knows he misses out on so much, like traveling the world, which was his lifelong dream.  We act like these people are martyrs; as if they want recognition for all these things they do.  I guess that happens.  The true reason I behave a lot like George is that I could not live with myself if I didn’t.  I am compelled.  Call that what you want, but if actions speak louder than words, maybe you shouldn’t criticize and nitpick someone who is trying to do the right thing.  George isn’t perfect.  He isn’t trying to be. He also isn’t trying to be good.  He is good.  The attempt is to live in this world while still being a good person.

I saw myself in George.  (Doesn’t hurt that Jimmy Stewart was a damn fine actor, too.)

Also, there is Potter.  He’s the mean old fuck in this movie that tries to ruin everything for everybody.  He’s a caricature, but a powerful one that really reinforced my belief about the rich and greedy. He’s gross, surly, ugly, always in black and never seems to age as the flashbacks continue.  He seems perpetually 101 years old.   Potter tells George that George is the only one who has beaten him. It’s not through business acumen or luck.  It’s because George is good, and good people can’t be bought. They aren’t motivated by money.  The thought of becoming another Potter disgusts George.  He couldn’t even conceive of it.

I always think of the line when Potter was speaking to the Savings and Loan board after George’s father died.  In response to giving a poor person a home loan: “What does that get us?  A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class…”

That entire notion almost succinctly explains the ideological divide in this country.  First of all, fuck you, Potter.  Second, exactly who are supposed to sell homes to other than the people who require them?  Assuming he believes the rabble to already be discontented, does he really believe it’s because of the chance at a new house?  Or is it something else?  It could be that one old man in a fancy wheelchair wants to manipulate the lives of everyone in town into a world of his choosing.  He is an empty husk of a human being that has never known kindness in his life.  If he did, he might value the lives of those people as they were, at that moment. They were human beings living their lives, some of them in need, and he had the means to help them. And he didn’t do a damn thing other than judge them through his office window.

I’ve seen Mr. Potter’s in other contexts for years. I see them on TV all the time.  I read their posts on Facebook.  The president is one.

Nice guys finish last.  That’s because the game is rigged and they don’t want to cheat.  Good guys get to be good fathers and good husbands.  They don’t necessarily get to be successful in the workplace.  Why?  That is the realm of the Potters. It’s rare when a good guy can succeed in there.  They have to walk a very thin line because goodness and doing the right thing are not valued in this country as much as money and winning. Most good guys are taken advantage of as soon as they are identified.  Their values often get in the way of good business.

So why are there good guys and good gals?  Because they have to be.  I have to be. They aren’t martyrs or angels. Like George, they are just doing what they are compelled to do, just like pretty people are pretty, and blue-eyed people have blue eyes.  They just are.