Wednesday, March 02, 2005

The Executioner #1

War Against The Mafia by Don Pendleton

You say that a good cause will even sanctify war! I tell you, it is the good war that sanctifies every cause!
Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche has been maligned for most of the twentieth century. Often believed to be an inspiration for the Nazi party he was in fact an Anti-Nationalist who was also against Anti-Semitism. His sister, who didn't share his view, published selective portions of his writings deceptively to further her own agenda. He is also hated for having coined the phrase "God is Dead" even though that was his disgusted observation on Europe's rampant nihilism at the time and not a personal theocratic view.

Nietzsche, who was against Christianity (along with any public organization), wrote his philosophical take using Zarathustra (Zoroaster) metaphorically. The irony is that most of Christianity's core ideals, the idea of Good and Evil, the idea of a Paradise for the dead, the idea of a deity born of a virgin, the idea of monotheism, and the idea of a Trinity got their start in the Zoroastrianism of Babylonia.

Friedrich believed that Man wasn't complete, that from Animal to Man one could eventually evolve to Ubermensch which has been translated as Overman or Superman. An Overman was Master of himself and Servant to nobody. Neither was he a servant to Society, its morals or its values. Nietzsche's idea of Good and Evil are different from what we take it to be. "Evil" is anything that fights Society's norms and as such could be "Good" in some circumstances.

Sgt. Mack Bolan, star of Don Pendleton's phenomenal Executioner series and its many spin-offs, is a man doing good through evil. He got his nickname in the jungles of Vietnam from his calculated tally of terminations. The official count was at 95 (many of them top-ranked Viet Cong officers) when Bolan was rushed home to bury his family.

His fourteen year old brother told him what was kept from the police: Sam Bolan had borrowed money from a loan shark after a mild heart attack kept him from work for awhile. His lighter work load didn't pay him enough to keep up with the payments which resulted in harrassments and assaults that steadily increased. Sixteen year old Cindy Bolan tried to intervene and was talked into prostitution as a quick way to settle the debt. Johnny Bolan learned of his sister's work and couldn't think of anything other than telling their father, hoping he'd stop her. Sam Bolan's reaction was to shoot the family and then himself.

Mack Bolan learned that the loan company was tied to the Mafia. He also learned that the police weren't going to do squat; Mafia convictions were nearly impossible and Sam Bolan was clearly the killer. Mack didn't see the point in fighting an enemy on the other side of the planet when there were enemies at home.

In Vietnam Sgt. Bolan was an executioner, sent on missions to kill specific people. He was often close enough to hear them breathing, to see the pain and fear in their eyes when they knew they were dying. He did that 95 times, not miles away from a launch pad or aircraft, not in the heat of battle when Right and Wrong doesn't exist and all one thinks about is living another minute, but close enough for a conversation.

His Vietnam life became his Pittsfield life. His killings were often messy. His pity for those who begged was non-existent. Society could not condone his cold-blooded taking of human lives without benefit of trial but in Mack Bolan's philosophy, in the increasing public sentiment, and in the unofficial sanction of the police force, he was fighting the good fight.

He was Superman, literally fighting for Truth, Justice and The American Way. He was Superman, seemingly invincible (surviving a bullet in the shoulder.) He was Superman, the Man of Steel, son of Sam Bolan who spent his life in the Steel Industry; The Man of Steel, nicknamed Iron-Man Bolan by one of his few friends.

He had no delusions of living a long life, expecting every day to be his last, but War Against The Mafia ends with Bolan driving across the country to track down a plastic surgeon buddy from Vietnam, expecting it to be his last mile and planning on it being bloody to the end. Ten years after Don Pendleton's death Mack Bolan hasn't ended his final mile.

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