Men and women may have different weapons at their disposal,but its Love that holds the dragon.Thats always been the concept of this icon since its early christian origins.So you find no aggression in this picture,only an attempt to harmonise existing forces.
Its also a concept within the first seven seasons of a cop show called Law and Order Criminal Intent (LOCI) .You see it best defined in the arias at the end of two episodes,one called "Want",the other called "Blind Spot". Beautiful. Thats what made it different and enigmatic for a while.After Season 7 the original writers had all left and the concept dissipated.
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WHEN A COP SHOW IS MORE THAN A COP SHOW
Published in The Friend, 20th January 2006,from a longer study written in 2005.
Television is a much-maligned medium. You might not know of the American drama Law and Order; Criminal Intent (LOCI) currently showing on Hallmark, Sky One and Channel Five. However, if you do watch it, pay attention to its underlying concepts, some of which are surprisingly close to Quaker values.
This programme recognises the power of faith as a prime human motivator, not just the Faith of major religions, but also the faith people put in each other, and above all the faith of Goren, the softly spoken detective who never fires a gun and whose sympathies are with passive resistance. As he traverses the Wasteland of New York and the derangement of its inhabitants he is upheld by a steadfast faith in the Spirit of Good in the human condition, that hidden spark, what he calls ‘the sparkling girl’. He reaches out to this in the most unlikely of criminals, like Tagman, the serial killer in ‘Want’, for whom he pleads against the death penalty: “Your loneliness is so deep, you can’t help but do this again, because you needed to be connected. You’re always going to look for that connection. Take responsibility. This will never stop until you take responsibility,” Goren tells him.
What concerns Goren is that people remain engaged in the struggle for Good, however fallible, erroneous or maladjusted their efforts. Those who give up and become disaffected, disinterested or isolated, like Widlock in’ Magnificat’, are seen as the real criminals, whether they commit a crime or not. These characters most test Goren’s faith in the Good of the human spirit because he is about saving souls as well as solving crimes.
Good has a practical significance in LOCI, it’s not a lofty abstract, so its concerned with people living the Good life, straight and true, doing the right thing, recognising who they are honestly, like Wallace at the end of’ Grow’. The other way is to live a crooked life, self-deluding and wronging others. Also the passions and appetites that can lead to horrendous crimes, like the loneliness of Tagman, are shown as common to us all, not an aberration. For human fulfilment is shown as dependent upon making significant connections with others. The most damaged or evil characters are seen as those who fail to connect, become isolated or dehumanised.
Compassion is the key to Goren’s detection. When Evil feels loved it can be diffused or transformed because it feels included, not threatened. Without compassion Evil can only be imprisoned or exiled. A sound society is dependent on acknowledging and including its own evils, as a sound personality needs to accept and integrate its dark side. Otherwise Evil remains dangerous, in opposition or underground.
This is a mystery the old storytellers knew when they showed the dragons and monsters being overcome by an attitude of Mind (Knight) in a warfare (Quest) of the Soul (Wasteland). In the icons or St.George slaying the dragon, his expression is one of Love, not aggression. Likewise the dragon bends to surrender freely. Their battle is a mutual engagement. In the same way Goren’s style of interrogation is an act of Love, often a seduction (Wallace in’ Antithesis’/Tagman in ‘Want’). It is unprecedented to find a cop show not centred on aggression and a detective who acts more like a suitor than a policeman.
So it seems to me there are themes in LOCI close to Quakerly concerns; Goren’s faith in the Good in everyone and his compassion towards those who others regard as unforgivably Evil; the focus on good practice in Life, on how we connect truthfully with others; the depiction of real Evil as the brutalisation of our Humanity. What appears to be just an entertaining American cop show is, in fact, an understanding enquiry into the human condition, and certainly worth watching.
