I’ve said it numerous times: the superheroes that we are watching and reading today are a direct allegory for the mythology of old. These are our Greek (Marvel) and Roman (DC) gods. The stories that are told using them are the same morality tales that used to be read in ancient times but with a modern, and more asskicking, twist. These legends also reflect the times in which they were created, and it should say something about the division of our society when our pantheon of gods are spending the majority of the summer blockbuster season not fighting the bad guys, but each other.

Captain America: Civil War (the 13th film in the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe) was released this past Friday and is on track to become the 8th largest economy on the face of the earth. While it is a movie full of everything Avengers: Age of Ultron was supposed to be and packed to the absolute brim with dick-punching action and bone-tickling humor, it’s also full of a lot of lessons that we could all benefit from. Here are the 5 lessons that I learned from watching Captain America: Civil War.

No One Is 100% Right or Wrong

In The Movie: The actions of The Avengers, and the growing population of super-powered heroes and villains, have led to some catastrophic scenarios that the world can no longer tolerate without recompense. One-hundred-and-seventeen countries in the United Nations have written the “Sokovia Accords,” which aims to place The Avengers under the guidance and scrutiny of a Government Entity. Iron Man thinks that this is a good thing because the enhanced individuals of that he has come to call friends are all, essentially, walking weapons of mass destruction whose actions need to be curtailed to prevent additional fall out and loss of human life. Captain America thinks that this is a bad thing because governments and committees have proven, over and and over again, to be corrupt and willing to use people for their owns means towards their own ends. He sees The Avengers as greater than any institution thats priorities could change and thats will could be swayed by money or the ever-fluctuating political ground of the world.

In Real Life: How often do you see this, especially during a Presidential election cycle? Reasonable viewpoints from both sides of the aisle that are turned into talking points that escalate into a black and white argument of skewed ideology and rhetoric. It becomes so divisive that you find yourself disagreeing with people, often loved ones, that you would normally agree with because the viewpoints of everyone involved have become so dichotomous that there is never going to be an agreed upon middle ground. Even compromises of these viewpoints become untenable because to agree to point A means ceding ground to points B through F (points that you are just fundamentally against).

The Moral: Because we’re so often biased by all of the things that influence us (the media, our upbringing, how many Captain America comics we own, etc.), we don’t often have the ability to to see the other side of an argument, but we need to because for every time we think that we’re righteously correct, the other side thinks we’re righteously wrong.

Everyone Is The Hero Of Their Story

In The Movie: Iron Man thinks that he’s right. Captain America thinks that he’s right. The cadre of superfreaks that they call friends also believe that each one of them is right. Iron Man and Cap are willing to end their friendship, their history and all of the good that they have done together over their points of view because each of them thinks that they are the good guy in the story. They’re right, so it’s obvious that the other person is wrong simply by way of disagreement. Their friends are willing to fight and be incarcerated over it so one of them MUST be the good guy and the other the bad guy. The fact of the matter is, according to each side, their guy is the good guy and the other guy is the bad guy. We never set out to be the villains in our own story. 

In Real Life: You’ve undoubtedly found yourself looking at someone that you disagree with, someone who you are so diametrically opposed to, that you wonder how their brain could have survived so far up their own ass that they no longer have to pay for a colonoscopy. They’re so wrong that they might as well be channelling Hitler through a Ouija board. But here’s the thing: They think the same thing about you. We may hate terrorists for the things that they do—the unmitigated slaughter, the senseless violence—but they feel the same way about us that we feel about them. Our rampant quasi-imperialism, our “fuck god enlightenment,” our view of them as backwards savages makes us, in their minds, just as bad as they are in ours. It’s a hard thing to wrap our heads around.

The Moral: We are just as right in our own eyes, as we are wrong in theirs. Maybe we could be less of a dick about it sometimes.

Doing The “Right Thing” is Never Easy

In The Movie: Iron Man and Captain America; friends, compatriots, brothers in arms—men willing to lay down their life for each other—find themselves at odds thinking that they are in the right. For each of them the “Right Thing” involves not only sacrifice but the facing down of their best friend and, point blank, being willing to put them in jail, or in the ground. Their multi year friendship comes to a breaking point as each man thinks that they are on the righteous side of history. They are, remember, both right and as such they face a road that is fraught with a million problems that would be easily resolved in one were willing to compromise. But they can’t. You don’t compromise “The Right Thing;” you don’t settle for “The Closest Enough To The Right Thing Because It’s Convenient.”

In Real Life: It is, in our very carefree and convenient society, very easy to compromise the right thing. We don’t have to feed our kids the healthiest and best food because it’s so much easier to just make some beanies and weenies and not give a shit. We don't always stand up for things that we kinda, sorta believe in because it takes more effort than we we're willing to expend. It takes will, dedication and perseverance to do the right thing. It is so very, very easy to give absolutely zero fucks these days because doing the right thing often means alienating our friends and family and opening ourselves up to their judgement and mockery. And our “Right Thing” may not be our friends idea of “The Right Thing," but it’s our Right Thing...and that means it’s the right thing for us to do.

The Moral: Doing what is right, according to our principles and guidelines, may put us at odds with our friends. Their right thing might put them at odds with us. But it’s still right as far as we/they are concerned...and we need to respect that—even if it makes no goddamned sense to us.

There Is No Big Scary Bad Guy for Us to Fight

In The Movie: One of the biggest denouncements of the MCU has been that their bad guys are simply there as something for the good guys to punch the shit out of so the movie can meet the classic three act structure. I won’t give away the ending, or some key plot points, but Civil War manages to subvert this entirely. The final fight in this film is one of the most personal, most barbaric, most vitriolic climax moments that Superhero cinema has ever seen. It doesn’t come down to fighting an army of aliens falling from the sky. It’s not a big-bad from the great beyond that is a misnomer to the normal world. The bad guy is each other. Two men of differing views who believe so wholly in their viewpoint that they are ready to bloody their fists to further its cause.

In Reality: There is NO conspiracy theory. There are NO lizard people. There are divisions among our society that keep us off balance and engaged in the act of hating each other but, in the end, there are just people. People of differing ideologies, different religions, different dietary constraints, different musical tastes and preferences for color palette, but people nonetheless. There is no alien bad guy on the breaches of our solar system waiting for a moment of weakness. It’s just us...and we are fighting the shit out of each other for some very petty and bullshit reasons.

The Moral: It’s just US in here. Just humans. We would probably be better off if we realized that sooner rather than later. We can only fight and die over a means of government or religion for so long before it becomes patently stupid and self defeating.

There. Is. Hope. (If You Look For It)

In The Movie: Despite all of the OH SO VERY COOL in-fighting. Despite some of the greatest cinematic battles that I thought would never happen when I was being judged for loving comic books at 12 years old. Despite a movie ending scene that brought me the closest to tears I have been since Bruce Willis’ final speech in Armageddon (don’t you judge me). Despite the roller coaster of emotions in Captain America: Civil War, the movie ends on a note of hope. Hope of a restored friendship. Hope of a world protected by the men and women with the means to save us all. Hope that, despite all of their differences, when the time comes maybe, just maybe, they can put aside their differences and save the world. 

In Real Life: You can see it everyday on social media and in the feel good moments of your local news. There’s a reason that your nightly broadcast takes 30 seconds out of their coverage of war, despair, brutality and corruption to show you images of heartwarming things that have gone right. Members of the Armed Services who come home from deployment to surprise their kids. Deaf children hearing their mom’s voice for the first time and smiling. Rescued dogs covered in mage, living under a dumpster restored to vigor and vitality through the power of patience and love. This world can be an awful, hateful, violent and a downright pants-shittingly terrifying place, but if you pay attention it can also be one that is so full of good people, with good intentions that you can’t help but feel a little bit of pride in the human race. I’m not a very positive, sunshine-y person but every now and then you need to see something that makes you realize, Yeah...it’s not all a volcano of shit.

The Moral: This world is a beautiful place, filled with beautiful and amazing people...you just have to weed through the rhetoric, bullshit and awfulness to find it, but it’s there.