The Terminal List - On What is Wrong with our Society

Terminal List is not the kind of show I normally watch. It is the story of a rogue Seal who brings the war back with him to the Homeland, fighting against corruption within. But I watched it because I like Chris Pratt who plays the lead, a Navy seal James Reece. What struck me about the TV show was the worldview difference between the elite (managerial class) in the military and the warriors (Navy seals) in the military. This divide exemplifies what is wrong with out society.

The thing which the Navy seals value most is the shared sense of brotherhood they get with each other. The elite in the military on the other hand seem to value prestige and money. The navy seal's worldview values being a brother to the other. The elite military officers worldview is seems to be one of sheer materialism.

There is a scene later in the TV show that contrasts these two worldviews - brotherhood vs materialism. James Reece confronts one of the navy seal trainers, Commander Fox, who had become one of the corrupt elites, on the payroll of the corporations running the military industrial complex. James askes Fox why he took money from the corporations while compromising his values. The commander replies rather defiantly, "What does a life time of serving the country gives us, other than a measly pension?!" as a way of justifying his corruption. James Reece replies, "What you get is the brotherhood, that is the point!"

Reece makes an important point both in the story and what this speaks to about the society at large. In the story, Reece has lost a lot. But the one thing that keeps him going is his desire to get justice for his fallen brothers. The deep sense of friendship the seals have is admirable, and even enviable. I say enviable because we live in a world of declining male friendships - National Review says we are living in in an age of Male Friendship Recession. Surveys in the US show precipitous decline in male friendship, which there is a parallel an uptick in deaths of despair. Having deep communal bonds is crucial for mental health. If we don't understand the sense of brotherhood which the Navy seals value, then much of the movie does not make sense.

How do the Navy seals have this strong sense of brotherhood that he is willing to risk his own life?

I think there are two reasons for this.

1) They live for a purpose bigger than themselves. C.S.Lewis says that friendship is something one develops when two people are sitting side by side an are engaged in a common interest which captures their attention. In the case of Navy seals the common interest is the mission they are sent to accomplish.

2) They learnt to trust each other with their lives. The only way they can survive in complex combat situations is by trusting that they will have each other's back, even to the point of death. Jesus says in John 15:13 that there is, "no love is greater than to lay one's life for a friend." There is a deep psychic security that comes when one is a part of such deep trusting relationships.

What James Reece was trying to get Commander Fox to see that compromising ones values in order to gain wealth is not worth loosing the deep satisfaction that comes from living into a brotherhood. Human being have this deep desire to live in brotherhoods, as we see in the medieval guilds and monasteries (for monks and nuns), because we are made in the image of God who is a Triune community held together by self-giving love (as Jesus explains in John 17:20-23 that oneness in Trinity is the model the unity of the disciples). To the extend that we don't value our need for deep bonds with the community around us we will become less human, the way the elite managerial class seem in Terminal List. In exchanging the brotherhood for money, the elite managerial class lose their humanity. Their humanity dies before they indeed are terminated.