I was at a talk once by a guy who worked on an international rescue team for natural disasters and suchlike, and something that stuck with me was his claim that altruistic behaviour between adults is very rare in critical situations, regardless of their relationship to each other - the survival instinct is just too strong. Children (and to some extent pets) are a different matter, because even stronger instincts cut in there, but when it comes to adults, saving yourself first, even at the cost of others, is the rule. At least that was apparently his experience. It's not that it *never* happens, but it seems likely that it is significantly less common than popular culture would have us believe... (Though arguably there's a difference between trampling someone to get to a fire exit and determinedly going after someone with a gun, but with people who are as used to weapons and killing as these characters are, perhaps not that much of a difference? Still not sure.)
He sort of comes at it from the opposite direction to most people Yes... We get plenty of evidence that Avon's got a fairly strong altruistic impulses, but that he actively fights to suppress them...
The way I tend to read him it's not morality per se that he's got a problem with (and at least in the early eps his moral compass seems not much worse than the others') but *emotion*. Or at least emotion-based decision-making. He does seem easily overwhelmed by his own emotions, and it seems likely to me that that has a big part in his insistence on adhering to logic and reason. For every big mistake his emotions get him into (e.g. Anna, or his choices in 'Terminal') he gets more determined to not let them have any part in his decision-making in the future (with variable success!) In that scenario it wouldn't be strange at all that he remains conflicted. The emotions are still there, it's just that his motivation for not letting them sway him from whatever course reasons seems to suggest gets stronger for every failure.
There were a few commercial airliner accidents recently that made me seriously doubt the ability of the average human to act rationally (let alone altruistically) when in an actual crisis.. The number of people photographed trying to take their luggage with them down the evacuation slides - endangering everyone still on board for the sake of their emergency knickers and duty-free was horrifying! It appalled me and I was completely outraged - but they probably weren't "bad" people, just ignorant and panicky - both of which lead to bad decision making.
I'm sure I saw a tv programme about airliner accidents that said that when people are overwhelmed by fear and full of adrenaline, they cannot think rationally and they tend to revert to their most common ingrained behaviour in a situation. And what do people usually do when leaving a plane? Take their luggage with them! I think the programme advocated that people repeatedly mentally rehearse what they would do in an emergency situation to stop the "automatics" from cutting in.
He sort of comes at it from the opposite direction to most people
Yes... We get plenty of evidence that Avon's got a fairly strong altruistic impulses, but that he actively fights to suppress them...
The way I tend to read him it's not morality per se that he's got a problem with (and at least in the early eps his moral compass seems not much worse than the others') but *emotion*. Or at least emotion-based decision-making. He does seem easily overwhelmed by his own emotions, and it seems likely to me that that has a big part in his insistence on adhering to logic and reason. For every big mistake his emotions get him into (e.g. Anna, or his choices in 'Terminal') he gets more determined to not let them have any part in his decision-making in the future (with variable success!) In that scenario it wouldn't be strange at all that he remains conflicted. The emotions are still there, it's just that his motivation for not letting them sway him from whatever course reasons seems to suggest gets stronger for every failure.
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