# 244: James Bond
Story behind the Passage
Today they are showing James Bond “The World Is Not Enough” on television. That is the story behind the passage. But the reason why I am picking it up is because I know a man who really reminds me of James Bond a lot. But the funny thing is, I think, he thinks that I make that comparison because of completely different reasons than might be obvious. I know that he has been compared to 007 by other people as well. Still, no matter if he likes that or not, I do think that their reasons are different from mine. So, what are my reasons?
My Learnings
“If you can’t trust MI6, whom can you trust?” Trust is the key word here. I looked up the book and searched for exactly this term. Because that is the reason why I think of the guy I know in reference to Bond. For me, the two share a lot of visible things — action, muscles, look, a dry kind of humor, money, travel, risk taking, sports… Still, all of these things are not the most dominant characteristics for me. What stands out is the inability to fully trust. This also leads to them keeping quite a few secrets.
When talking about trust, people might argue that no person on earth fully trusts. I do not think so. There are people who fully trust in life and therefore also in other human beings. But most of them have walked a spiritual path to a high level of enlightenment. Most others, I guess, trust in certain people and certain things — that is it, and it is enough to be happy. Still, Bond is different for me, especially the current one, Daniel Craig. The ones before were less like that, I mean, unable to trust. Maybe I just forgot about them. In any case, especially the fact that Bond cannot trust also makes his numerous affairs with women so exciting. Probably, “exciting” is not the right word. Mysterious might be the proper term. He can never fall in love because he cannot trust. Still, many of his liaisons are fairly serious and deep.
So, is love the ultimate “test”?
Do you have to love in order to find out if you can trust?
Can you truly love but still not trust in life?
Bond for me is so fascinating because he is so hurt in many ways — not physically, mentally. He is a loner, really. He has no one on earth, except for his job and the women he meets once in a while. But there is something greater that makes him live: The mission to save the world. I think, this is the ultimate evidence that he cannot trust. Someone who tries to save the world all the time like a maniac tries to evict all evil from the world. And evil is the source of not trusting. So, it makes sense to kill the source rather than the consequence, right?
When it comes to the man that I compared to Bond at the outset, I am not sure of the details yet. To me, he is someone who trusts in life but not necessarily in other people. That might be a binary, but maybe it is not. What I feel very strongly, is that he has been hurt very badly before, just like Bond has suffered innumerable physical and mental wounds. Whenever he got betrayed by a woman, not even talking about the betrayal of foreign powers and their agents, he took away a scar. I think, I see exactly this in the man I am comparing to Bond. And the consequence is just the same: He keeps risking his life in one way or the other to save the world with technology.
Is saving the world the ultimate evidence that you cannot trust?
All this comparing and analogy drawing is complete bullshit, of course. James Bond is a fictional character and the man I am talking about is real. Still, as we know, especially people in literary studies, fictional characters are painted in the minds of non-fictional authors of flesh and blood, with a beating heart, and a thinking brain. If real human beings can create such non-real figures, there still is much reality to them. So, the only thing I feel about this is that I wish the real-life James Bond will be able to trust at a certain point. But maybe that is not the script of his life. Maybe James Bond just is not meant to trust because that would destroy his mission to save the world. And that cannot be.
We need people to save the world.
Since we know that it is not possible.
We project the power of James Bond onto people we meet.
Maybe that is the ultimate sign that we do not trust ourselves?
Maybe trust is impossible to attain anyway.
Reflection Questions
1) Who is the most trustful person you know? What makes you think so?
2) Do you ever watch James Bond movies? Why/not?
3) Is there any movie/literary character that you can personally relate to?