Philosophy In Television (Part 12): Invincible

"This isn't how I wanted to do this, but I don't have a choice.  It's time for you to know where I really come from.  I am from Viltrum, but it's not the planet I've told you about."

--Omni-Man, Invincible (season one, episode eight)

"You're fighting so you can watch everyone around you die!  Think, Mark!  You'll outlast every fragile, insignificant being on this planet.  You'll live to see this world crumble to dust and blow away . . . What will you have after 500 years?"

--Omni-Man, Invincible (season one, episode eight)

Recent years have brought forth multiple mainstream examples of what a hyper-powerful alien or superhuman being could do if it had the whim of destroying numerous human lives.  From the Darkseid-influenced Superman of Batman v Superman and Zack Snyder's Justice League to Homelander of The Boys, these examples have become a more prominent part of popular culture than before.  Only with Invincible's extraterrestrial Omni-Man do viewers see such a being as it rampages across the world casually ending human lives in the name of utilitarian or egoistic ideas.  Invincible starts out as a portrayal of a new hero adjusting to his powers in a world where superheroes, supervillains, and alien visitation of Earth are normal, but the first season ends as a reminder of how looking up to others can lead to crushing disappointment, especially when they have power.

It is not that power cannot be used in a purely benevolent, just, non-selfish manner; nothing about the concept of power logically requires that anyone wielding it is abusive or selfish.  The malevolent Omni-Man's own son Mark, whose superhero alias is the titular Invincible, serves as an example of this in the series (not that any examples in fiction or real life are necessary to prove that power does not have to be used destructively or unjustly).  Invincible does not yet have the experience and strength of his father, but he opposes the erroneous utilitarian ideas of Omni-Man to the point of almost dying for them, refusing to join him even when Omni-Man showed him how pragmatically futile his opposition is.

As a Viltrumite, Omni-Man has extreme power and abilities like flight, and he clearly allowed his strength as a Viltrumite to persuade him to make mere assumptions that he thinks conveniently justify his species's plan to subdue planets beyond Viltrum.  The species seeks to infiltrate other planets and prepare them for Viltrumite rule after having faced a major purge of its so-called weak citizens.  Almost as soon as he starts explaining his true objectives to his son Invincible, however, the self-deception and irrationalistic beliefs reveal themselves.  In the flashback to the massacre on Viltrum, one can even see that some very powerful fighters are killed, which contradicts Omni-Man's insistence that the "weak" had to be removed for the planet to flourish.  In reality, even very strong Viltrumites were killed for the sake of a utilitarian assumption.  This is just one of many delusions Nolan has about Viltrumite history and imperialism, though the genuine conflict within him that spurs him to leave Earth suggests he might have knowingly embraced lies and philosophical assumptions to convince himself to stay committed to his goal of planetary conquest anyway.

Perhaps Invincible was thinking emotionalistically instead of rationally when he objected to his father's goal, because he hardly expresses rationalistic thought elsewhere in the show, but he does at least seem to recognize the invalidity of Omni-Man's claim that the prolonged Viltrumite lifespan means that humans have no moral significance or value and can be used for whatever purpose the Viltrumites wish.  It is objectively true that it does not logically follow from a being living for millennia that whatever they desire is justified.  Omni-Man's philosophical basis, which is just an assumption as it is, can even be disproven.  Utilitarianism is logically false because if moral obligations exist instead of just moral preferences, then an act is amoral, obligatory, or evil because of its nature, not because of whatever consequences it brings about.  If moral obligations do not exist and there are only moral preferences, outcomes still cannot make something morally good.

The utilitarianism inherent in Omni-Man's professed worldview is clearly not rejected by him outright because of its logical errors, but attachment to his human wife and his son dispels his resolve enough that he flies away from Earth.  Nolan's face betrays seeming sadness as he speaks of how he could not share his true nature with his human wife and mentions how Viltrumites outlive other species by thousands of years, watching those they might have loved succumb to the biological degradation of old age.  It is ironic that he only stopped living as if a false philosophy is true, a false philosophy that he could not have used to reason to establish and therefore likely just settled for emotionalism, because he was suddenly overcome by emotion.  This is also what it would likely take to get an irrationalistic thinker (a real person) to stop a destructive quest that they pursue at almost any cost to themselves or others.

Spontaneous emotion drives so many people to and away from worldviews because they rarely think about serious matters until it benefits them.  It is common, after all, for people to never think about moral issues until they have to.  Even then, the only examples of utilitarianism in action that most people, including sincere utilitarians, will ever likely see are either relatively small or do not involve the truly most harmful things people can do, like rape or extreme torture.  Since most people at least talk and act as if they are philosophically incompetent fools, which anyone who refuses or opposes rationalism amounts to, the inherent falsities of utilitarianism will not necessarily be discovered apart from some situation that personally frightens the typical non-rationalist enough to ignite an at least temporary concern for truth.  Sometimes fiction is the only exposure to the more blatant cases of utilitarian actions that people will have.