So, I got a japanese Deathnote manga volume

Light was a good person and that's just it. He used the death note for all the global benefit rather than personal gain that he could (which is already a far stretch beyond the goodwill of most of the world), but he was only human. What he did benefited the world, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is, unfortunately, no exception to this. So rather than focus on the person, look at what he did. Look at the effect that it had. The detectives themselves admitted that the world had become a better place due to what he did, and in the last book,

Spoiler

they refer to how much the world looks like **** compared to when Kira was still around, and how it's "just like it was before".

 

The only reason I continued watching Death Note was because of L...

 

In response to this, I point you to someone quite like Light, but with a slightly different approach.

Spoiler

Kitaniji Megumi.

People should be thinking "I'm going to be a good person because it's proper," not "I'm going to be a good person because otherwise I WILL BE FUCKING KILLED BY A SELF-RIGHTEOUS BRAT." In this respect, what Light did was essentially brainwashing. A forced peace is insincere, it is complacent, and most importantly, it has a single point of fault: As one can see, if Light is removed from the equation, it crumbles. Peace like that is decidedly finite, and ultimately next-to-worthless. Light did nothing great.

 

Light started out with good intentions, but he got what he wanted doing all the wrong things. He was willing to kill anyone who got in his way, which is very similar to the thinking of the people he was trying to destroy. In trying to become good, he became as bad as those he wanted to punish, and for that, he deserved his death. I'm not saying, however, that anyone who tries to make the world a better place deserves to die, definitely not. But anyone who becomes so obsessed with making the world a better place that they are blind to corruption themselves is not intelligent or wise enough to handle that responsibility.

 

It is not brainwashing. As time moves on, the morals and values of general society WILL change. Every worldly is finite; nothing is going to last forever. Your argument is based entirely around the idea that it is possible for any object of this universe, physical or otherwise, to last for forever.

 

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Cats/******.jpg

 

Spoiler

The series died when L died, but it was good while it lasted. I guess the last two episodes were all right... but Light taking over as L was just like "lolwut"

 

It was epic and not lolwut because absolutely nobody saw it coming.

 

Spoiler

http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/6155/******edicecream1wg3.jpg

 

HOLY ****ING OMEFFING, I LOVED THOSE THINGS.

I want one now

 

No, they won't, because they already have. There is no chance for proper morals and values to develop because they are forced upon a large group all at once--and what's more, there's good reason to believe that these things may become associated with punishment and death, given their enforcer. Light is connecting peace to tyranny. Morals will change, but hypothetically speaking it's easy to see how we might lose some very good morals in a situation like this, simply because they remind people of "Light the killer."

No it's not. It's based on varying degrees of longevity. Light's peace did not last long, nor would it under any other circumstance. The eventual consequence would be one of two: that (A) a group rises to overthrow Light and is then faced with the challenge of maintaining peace while practicing more noble methods, or (B) Light's grip on the world must get increasingly tighter to keep it under his control, causing more and more unnecessary deaths. Of course, going by your logic, this second scenario wouldn't last forever. The point is for us to reach a state where, regardless of its longevity or permanence, we can return to peace because we understand that it is right. Our progress towards that goal at present really isn't that bad, if questionable in some areas, but in Light's hands, I'm confident that the only direction to go is backwards.

Either way, all of this fails to address what happens when Light dies. As it stood, things went back to normal. What if he had ruled for all of his natural lifespan? Can you even imagine the chaos that would ensue in the political and moral fallout to follow? This is an entire generation that knows nothing except "Light the killer," the God of Death that looms over them in every waking moment. We're talking about a third-world power struggle here. What's more, even if Light had contingency plans for his death, there's no doubt they'd fall apart in the end: If Light's Death Note was passed on, to whom should it go? If he chooses a successor ahead of time, will everyone be happy with him/her? Will he/she rule as "justly" as Light?

You said yourself that power corrupts. Yet you seem to think this corruption is outside the purview of Light's achievements. The method by which he proposed to keep the peace involves someone who has absolute power. Again going by your logic, this means that the person in charge of keeping the peace is, ten times out of ten, absolutely corrupt. More Death Notes, you say? More corrupt men, and now they can fight with each other. With death-dealing notebooks, no less; meaning that, inevitably, there will be only one again. There is absolutely no way out of this. Near was right; the Death Note is just a weapon, its wielder just a murderer. And you know the saying, don't you?: Killing for peace is like fucking for virginity.



...Can I go now? =_=

 

I would retaliate but it's 9:30 and I'm tired and this isn't the debate corner so I'm not reading all of that.

 

Did this thread really get this serious?

 

I really feel like Wolfie's high tonight.

 

Guys, whoa, this is the spamzone, no need for paragraphs...

 

I'M AN ENGLiSH MAJOR. PARAGRAPHS ARE MY BLOOD.

rawr >:E

 

So you say in two sentences.