The largest gap in Myra’s reasoning is the kidnapping plot itself. This relativistic “reasoning” allows Myra to feel no guilt for her crime. Later, she orders Billy to kill the child: “Do it for me, Billy, so we both can be safe.” To believe that the ends justify the means is to reject any absolute standard of right and wrong. You agree with the end, don’t you?” She then argues, “Well, you must agree with the means.” Myra believes that if Billy agrees with her desire to become famous (the ends) then he should agree with kidnapping a girl (the means). She tells Billy, “What we are doing is a means to an end. Myra’s reasoning is that the ends justify the means. Just keep saying that.” Through rationalization, Myra convinces herself that they have not committed a crime. She even convinces herself that they have not kidnapped the girl: “We’ve borrowed a child, Billy. Because her plan involves a crime, she engages in rationalization to justify it: “the most commonly used defense mechanism, in which an individual justifies ideas, actions, or feelings with seemingly acceptable reasons or explanations.” 2 Myra reasons that “what we are doing is not wrong” because “the child won’t be hurt in any way.” In Myra’s mind, the only kind of harm she can cause a child is physical, not emotional. Myra manipulates Billy so she can achieve her dream of becoming a famous medium. Myra is a bully who has her unemployed husband “whipped.” ![]() She tells him, “you’re weak” and “you need me.” He obeys her like a willing servant, his eyes often averted from her gaze. Due to his asthma, he is unable to work, making it easier for Myra to manipulate him. One reason Billy appeases Myra is because he is financially dependent on her. He risks the physical and emotional well-being of an innocent girl to make his wife happy. Billy is a weak husband, giving in to Myra’s unjust demands. It is a policy of exempting the emotions of others from moral judgment, and of willingness to sacrifice innocent, virtuous victims to the evil malice of such emotions.” 1 To stop being an appeaser requires strength-the ability to say no. Ayn Rand defines appeasement as “the consideration for and compliance with the unjust, irrational and evil feelings of others. ![]() Billy becomes a criminal due to a long-standing habit of appeasement in his marriage.Īppeasement is giving in to the unjust demands of another person to avoid a conflict. In Brian Forbes’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), Myra Savage (Kim Stanley) persuades her husband Billy (Richard Attenborough) to commit a “savage” act: He kidnaps a young girl, and then by revealing knowledge about the girl’s whereabouts to the parents, Myra hopes to achieve fame and fortune as a medium.
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