The duality of man

In FMJ, the thing that really irked yet at the same time intrigued me was the way Joker wore a peace sign on his shirt, yet had "Born to Kill" on his helmet. It was something that always seemed to catch my eye, because the irony of the entire situation just seemed so enormous. I mean, why is this man, who is fighting a war, wearing a peace symbol? He shouldn't be! My immediate response was to snatch the symbol off of him. Seriously. You have no right to advocate peace when you're the main one fighting against it! That's how much it bothered me. But then, there was a scene in the movie, where a general asks Joker, in regard to both things, "what's that supposed to be, some kinda sick joke?", and Joker eventually responds by saying "I think I was trying to say something about the duality of man, sir". And then, for some reason, I began to see a different side of the entire situation. Perhaps it wasn't just some "sick joke" after all. What if not just Joker, but the director himself was trying to imply something?

I was confused as to what exactly the "duality of man" meant. So I looked it up. Apparently, it's a state of being when the soul and body aren't completely in tune. And then I thought about it, and I realized that that was exactly what was going on with Joker. I mean, from the beginning, I kind of felt as if Joker didn't really have the same purpose for fighting this war that the others had. And this suspicion was just confirmed when he said he was representing the duality of man. Essentially, was this not what America was doing? The claimed they were fighting for peace in Vietnam, but how can you possibly get peace when you're fighting a war? Maybe this was the message the director was trying to portray. Look at the double nature of these men, of these people, who are fighting, attacking, killing, for peace. How can peace be attained from this anyway? But that's just it. Peace can't be attained. Peace can't be forced upon. And peace certainly can't be brought by war. And yet, this was exactly what "man" was trying to do throughout the Vietnam war, and throughout all of the wars we're fighting now.

I don't think I'll ever forget that scene where I finally figured out why this man called "Joker" was wearing a peace sign, yet was practically advertising the fact that he was an assassin. I think I loved the irony in that, and I guess I loved how it showed that the American soldiers and America itself had two faces: one that was brutally murdering innocent civilians, and one that was advocating peace through the killing of man.