Introduction
Certain norms in society ought to be followed to the letter by all members of the given society irrespective of social standing. One of the key responsibilities entrenched in society is the role that parents are given to guard the wellbeing of their children, be it their biological or adopted ones. In the movie, Step Father, we see the main character, Dylan Walsh, who is entrusted with the lives of the little ones killing them. This incidence also happens severally today in most marriages and it becomes a moral question for any society. Killing in any society is evil as the right to life is strongly embedded in the constitutions of many countries in the world. Anyone who deprives the other of the right to life is heavily punished by being sentenced to death by several of the constitutions. In many societies, children are taught to trust their parents and to also respect all the decisions that the latter make in their lives. The trust begins with that of the children to their mothers. In the movie, Step Father, we see the children trusting their mother’s decision of getting married. The children find themselves in another family set up when their mother eventually gets married marriage to a man who they hardly know. The children are also seen to trust their father because their mother, Sela Ward, has shown trust in getting married to her husband, Dylan. It is devastating to see how the father ends up brutally killing the children and their mother. This demonstrates to the world that the children innocently believed and trusted their father. Society expects us to behave exactly the same as these children behaved. Even in times of suspicion, children are expected to always trust their parents.
Love is blind
The notion of love as being blind has been expressed by so many writers and philosophers. The fact that most people usually fall in love with their partners without doing any background investigation of their partners’ personal backgrounds is clearly brought to light by the movie (Cobban, 23). Most people are only interested in knowing about the present lives of their partners and never mind about their past. This is well demonstrated in the movie, Step Father, where we see the main character getting married to three widows one after the other and ends up killing all of them together with their children. While seducing he would be wives, Dylan Walsh pretends to be a gentleman and the women blindly fall for his seductive and charming advances. By falling in love blindly with someone, the other partner may take advantage of the situation and cause harm as is evidenced in the events of the movie. Marriage counselors always advice new couples to take time to know each other before ultimately settling down as husbands and wives. The personal history of someone can easily be obtained from the federal authorities. This would serve to expose someone who has previously committed crimes. Someone’s oral accounts cannot be taken to be true as people can lie about their past histories.
Deceit has become common in our societies. Most people pretend to be who they are not. Some people will come to you seeking genuine help but they will end up deceiving you and failing to fulfill their part of the bargain. It is very hard to differentiate between someone who is talking the truth and the one who is telling a lie. In the movie, Step Father, I perceive the main character as being full of deceit. He portrays himself as a widower and a victim of circumstances yet he has been involved in a series of murders. He lies to all the women he marries and ends up killing all of them. This fact has also been observed in our societies or communities. This shows that our societies are full of conmen, cheats, fraudsters and all sorts of evildoers. There are regulations in our laws that try to curb evil acts but the evildoers sometimes end up outdoing the legal systems with their ingenious ways of committing crimes.
Conclusion
Societies thrive and coexist because of the people who live in them and the moral standards set by the societies. When a society rots, it does so from the top classes of people who comprise the parents and leaders in the given society. The rot also trickles down to the younger generations of people in the given society. People should embrace the teaching of the Holy Bible and the Quran and adhere to their teachings. People should also respect that life is noble, holy and divine and should always be respected at all times (Elster, 23). Only the giver of life has the authority to take it away and this is adhered to will make our societies better places to live in. Human beings are always bound by the duties of care. Abdication of these duties does not augur well with the moral expectations of the given societies. Respect is an important element of social integration, peace, stability and meaningful development.
References
Cobban, Helena. Atrocity: Healing Nations after Genocide and War Crimes, Boulder: Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2008.Print.
Elster, Jon. Closing the books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.Print.