Agent van Alden

Last week in class, Professor Velasco mentioned briefly about a character in HBO's Emmy award winning series, Boardwalk Empire. The character is prohibition agent van Alden, and he has been shown to self-flagellate when his work and beliefs are in conflict. To summarize quickly, van Alden is working in Atlantic City during the Prohibition era to try and bring down the kingpin of the bootlegging and illegal sale of alcohol. The reason he mutilates his body is because he believes he sins. In Atlantic City, where prostitution and all sorts of illegal activities occur, its very hard for a lone man to not get tempted. Even though his job essentially is to rid the city of the "sins", he himself falls victim to temptation.

Interestingly, we see this commonly. People who at first strive to do good for society become prey after they realize just what they are dealing with. Politicians, for example, come into office with a lofty and ideal agenda on how to better the world. Only a few years in, those same politicians become so enamored with power and control they become what they had hoped to stop in the first place. "If you can't beat them, join them" may sound cliche, but it holds some truth, ironically.

The teachings of Christianity is also similar in that it tells people how to be good and what exactly a good person is, but people still do what is considered bad or evil. We know the blueprint to leading a life that will eventually take us to "heaven" but along the way we encounter many of the temptations and desires that stray us. Thus, in order to repent for these sins, people believe that delivering physical pain to the body is an offering for God's forgiveness. Though there may be a higher entity somewhere, realistically speaking, we only do these things to straighten our conscience. The feeling of guilt and betrayal to God, who is always looking upon us, must somehow be quelled. The knowledge that one has made dues with God allows that same person to go on living his or her life. Many of the things we do are truly things we do for ourselves, in fact.