The oppressor and the oppressed. It is impossible to have one without the other, two sides that form one coin (a fact we often conveniently forget). Is it a component of human nature to seek out the weak and in some fashion dominate them? They say rape is an act of violence rather than an expression of sexual desire; in other words, the rapist seeks to dominate - to oppress - the victim. In cinematic reflections of this reality, victims or their surrogates seek vengeance upon the perpetrator. A violent act for a violent act; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But there are those who suggest this ancient Biblical principle was actually designed not to validate violence, but to minimize the escalation of it. In other words, if I am harmed in some manner, I may exact the same in kind - but I may not make the perpetrator suffer a worse fate. I may have no more than my due.

I watched the artist formerly known as Captain Kirk in an advertisement for a television show recently. It appeared he reacted to a criminal defendant who had committed a horrific crime but dismissed his own actions on the basis that perhaps the victim was "asking for it." The good captain responded with a gun; as I did not watch the program, I am uncertain of the resulting harm. But it seems that this is an almost visceral common response: We want to see those who cause pain suffer pain themselves, especially when they seem unrepentant.

I am reminded of a story I read years ago about the Rwandan genocide. Given that so many people participated in the atrocities and murder of their neighbors, it simply was impossible to arrest or convict them all. In Maximum City, Mehta spoke to Indian Hindus who had burned Muslims to death simply for the crime of being Muslim, and yet went unpunished for their crimes. For those in Bombay's Muslim community, seeing this triggers a response: Like Charles Bronson in Death Wish, they turn vigilante, becoming gangsters in pursuit of the elusive sense of justice they find lacking.

In ancient Rome, the legends say, they threw Christians to the lions in the Coliseum as a form of public enjoyment. In the 21st century, an Iraqi prisoner claims that the soldiers of a so-called Christian nation tossed him in with the lions at a local zoo. Planes explode into buildings and thousands die because terrorists feel oppressed and strike back at the symbolic images of that hated "other" they blame for their ills. The war of terror and the war on terror: In each are found the seeds of this dance, this symbiotic relationship between the powerful and the powerless, between the oppressed and the oppressor.