It’s also important to recognize the dangers of imposing one’s all-encompassing viewpoint on others. Ozymandias’s view of a unified humanity resulted in him being as much of a mass murderer as Hitler, Stalin, or Genghis Khan. But the voice of reason comes from Dan and Laurie, who represent the voice of Generation X and every generation that has come since. What they can’t understand is the zealotry of their peers when their philosophy flies in the face of so much to the contrary. While Dan and Laure are by no means perfect or ethically sound, they do recognize their own individual flaws and try to live by as much of a code as they can.
That kind of acceptance of disagreement and welcoming of those who disagree — reaching across the aisle, if you will — is increasingly becoming the political narrative of an era where the majority of people no longer remember the '60s. More and more, Americans care less about insincere extremism and universal consensus and more about the greatest good for the greatest many. Could Watchmen be the first film of the Obama era? History will judge, but if you can’t help but laugh at the blowhard talking heads and misplaced paranoia that come when watching the film but not from reading the comic book, don’t be alarmed. To paraphrase Watchmen at the rise of a similarly baffling new generational trend, this indicates only that you are still sane.
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