>> Obviously, it's best that all people be good people all the time. <<
I think that's too much to ask. Don't break each other, don't saw off the branch you're standing on: much more reasonable. (And we can't even manage that ...)
>> But people do not exist in a vacuum. <<
That is exactly why Fury's behavior is a problem, it stains all the way down. What would really happen with a team of superheroes encouraged by someone of that moral fibre? *looks at Afghanistan* I shudder to think.
>> It is made very clear that the Director of SHIELD answers to the WSC, and also that they are a toxically sociopathic organization. <<
Yeah, having the world controlled by those nimrods is A Problem.
>> I find it hard to believe that anybody could climb to power under their aegis without first proving that he can be just as remorseless as they are. <<
Perhaps not impossible, but difficult enough that failure is plausible.
>> Empathy goes both ways. You can't keep it as a tool allowing you to read people and assess the best way of using them without damaging them when you have been forced to suppress its effects on your own emotions so that you can prove yourself to evil people and still be able to sleep at night. <<
Largely true.
>> I could easily believe that a good man named Nick once made the decision to pay the necessary cost so that he could gain the power to veto arbitrary nuking of Manhattan. <<
I think that plays into it.
>> That his counterbalance, safety net, and leash was his friend Phil who could be shielded from enough of the frankly immoral necessary decisions that he could /stay/ a noble, empathic man. <<
True, and their friendship is pretty well established. Maria Hill tries, but Fury doesn't listen to her. Huh, I wonder if Phil repeats what she says, sometimes, so that Fury will do it.
>> And that when he suddenly found himself without that necessary guidance on how to handle a group of brilliant, powerful, emotionally damaged individuals, he went with a dramatic gesture that worked perfectly in the very short term and had messy fallout afterwards. <<
Re: Why I love Phil--
I think that's too much to ask. Don't break each other, don't saw off the branch you're standing on: much more reasonable. (And we can't even manage that ...)
>> But people do not exist in a vacuum. <<
That is exactly why Fury's behavior is a problem, it stains all the way down. What would really happen with a team of superheroes encouraged by someone of that moral fibre? *looks at Afghanistan* I shudder to think.
>> It is made very clear that the Director of SHIELD answers to the WSC, and also that they are a toxically sociopathic organization. <<
Yeah, having the world controlled by those nimrods is A Problem.
>> I find it hard to believe that anybody could climb to power under their aegis without first proving that he can be just as remorseless as they are. <<
Perhaps not impossible, but difficult enough that failure is plausible.
>> Empathy goes both ways. You can't keep it as a tool allowing you to read people and assess the best way of using them without damaging them when you have been forced to suppress its effects on your own emotions so that you can prove yourself to evil people and still be able to sleep at night. <<
Largely true.
>> I could easily believe that a good man named Nick once made the decision to pay the necessary cost so that he could gain the power to veto arbitrary nuking of Manhattan. <<
I think that plays into it.
>> That his counterbalance, safety net, and leash was his friend Phil who could be shielded from enough of the frankly immoral necessary decisions that he could /stay/ a noble, empathic man. <<
True, and their friendship is pretty well established. Maria Hill tries, but Fury doesn't listen to her. Huh, I wonder if Phil repeats what she says, sometimes, so that Fury will do it.
>> And that when he suddenly found himself without that necessary guidance on how to handle a group of brilliant, powerful, emotionally damaged individuals, he went with a dramatic gesture that worked perfectly in the very short term and had messy fallout afterwards. <<
No brakes, no brakes, AAAAAAA!!!