Avengers Infinity War: the Philosophy and Psychology of Dr. Strange

Avengers Infinity War:

The Philosophy and Psychology of Dr. Strange

“Mr. Stark, just so you know, at the cost of protecting the time stone, I would let you die.” -Dr. Strange

Shortly thereafter, Dr. Stange searches over fourteen million alternate futures, and discovers that the only path leading to victory, is exchanging the times stone for Tony Stark’s life… What? 

A medieval alchemical dictum says, “In sterquiliniis invenitur”—in filth it will be found.

It is interesting, how confident we are in what we think we want before we actually have it and know it is what we want. Not only do we usually obsess about this-this we don’t know we really want, but we also think we know how we are going to obtain it - even though we still don’t have it yet. “If I could just… I would be able to…” How do we know? 

I had the privilege to want something for quite some time, enough time to be fairly confident that it would be the major source of my happiness. That question, “Where do you hope to be in five or ten years,” I felt I could confidently answer, but then I got it; well, sort of. There is a reason apocalyptic stories and movies with zombies and aliens are so popular because we like to imagine what we would do. As crazy as it sounds, somehow what while watching movies and dreaming I thought I was mentally prepared for but knew would never happen, happened…

I was in a foreign country, there was a car accident, I went to help, and then found myself surrounded by a mob of a couple hundred people chanting they would kill me if I didn’t let them get to the driver. What?! “It was an accident!” I yelled. “This is justice they screamed, we will kill you to get to him!” I didn’t know what had happened, he crashed into a cement wall in the middle of town seemingly for no reason, killing a woman in the process. I couldn’t imagine how, but I knew it couldn’t be on purpose. Given the speed of the impact, the drive was nearly dead. Turns out he had a seizure. 

Anyway, there I was, facing off with some two-hundred angry people screaming and jumping around. My inner apparently ghetto version of Chuck Norris or Jackie Chan thought, “Well, the only way to fight this many people would be to start punching people in the throat because there was no way I had the stamina for more than one punch each. Yes, I know it is crazy and grandiose, but I didn’t have a great deal of time to think. Unfortunately, there are not many really solid ideas that come to mind when your life is literally at stake. So, I psyched myself up and readied myself as the mob pressed towards me. I was just about to start swinging when from the back of the crowd I saw someone taller than me, and I’m 6’4”. The man pushing his way through the crowd with his bare chest looks me in the eyes and says, “I’m going to finish this.” 

My heart sank, I knew that wouldn’t be a one-punch fight, and my head dropped in despair. Just then I saw my apparently blood covered hand, with sickles of coagulated blood. It shocked me. I knew my arm was tingling, but I didn’t have time to look at it while facing down to the crowd. I had pulled off the windshield to try and pull the driver out, and didn’t know it, but had badly cut my hand. That massive man had finally pushed his way through the crowd and was feet away from me, and I had the sudden thought, and so I took my bloody hand and shoved it in his face. It stifled him, and he fell back into the crowd.

“Oh, you like blood do you! Well have some!” I yelled as I flung my arm like a sprinkler and showered the first few rows of the crowd with my blood. “You’re crazy!” they yelled. “I’m crazy?!!!” I yelled back, “It was an accident! Get out of here!” long story there was a lengthy standoff where I just held my bloody had out to keep the crowd back. 

There are only two types of archetypal journeys: Those where you find you don’t actually have to fight what you anticipated, and the journey where you have to fight something you didn’t anticipate. My first instinct was to fight, but it turned out that I didn’t need to fight. I was in wrestling at school growing up and dabbled in boxing during high school, but realistically, there was no way I was even taking down ten percent of that mob. I think that is the lesson to be learned. We must enter each difficult situation ready and willing to fight to the death, sometimes even to the death, and, simultaneously, ready and willing to not fight. We have to be ready and willing to lead, and ready and willing to follow, depending on what we determine is best. Too often our identity as a fighter or a pacifist weighs heavily on our judgment of which option would have the better outcome. 

I think one of the hardest things of adult life is learning how to say “no.” Confrontation rarely seems worth it, because it always comes back to bite us. If we decide to go down the confrontational route, we will have to stay on our toes and combat the retaliations that come back at us. Really, the problem is that our misunderstanding of what being assertive is. Assertiveness is what causes us to binarily pick between being aggressive and passive-aggressive. The word aggressive comes from the root, “to approach.” What are we approaching? 

I think both passive-aggression and aggression stem from not knowing what we are approaching. Assertiveness comes from the root, “to join together.” Assertiveness is when we have two things, and we join them together. In contrast, aggressiveness is when we carelessly stumble in the dark for where we think we will find something. 

Life is like a puzzle, and like all good puzzle strategies, the smartest thing to do is start with the edge pieces. Yes, of course, when you happen to notice two non-edge pieces that go together you put them together, but the main focus is on defining the perimeter. This happens in life through satire, as we define the logical extremes of things, and what benefit each logical extreme offers. On one extreme we have logic, and on the other extreme, we have value. In Avengers, the logical extreme is Ironman, and the value extreme is Captain America. The middle of the puzzle is near impossible to make sense of, but if we start at each logical extreme, and go one row at a time adding pieces towards the middle, we will eventually fill it in. 

These logical extremes are the same yin and yang, world as forum for action and world of things. We see the process of Iron Man and Captain America discovering their opposing logical extreme, and making sense of the middle of the puzzle. We have two separate parts of our psyche, our intuition, and our intellect. Our intuition sees value, and our intellect sees logic. We most often approach a situation not with which we feel best fits, but with the one, we feel most comfortable using, which is the one we have had the most success using… or that we feel the most successful with. 

Our identity often precedes our words and actions, and looking smart or nice often gets us as much or more than actually doing something nice or smart—this gives us incentive to maintain our indemnity. This is most evident in Guardians of the Galaxy with Rocket Raccoon. In Volume II Rocket maintains his tough-guy identity when he has to do things he doesn’t actually want to do. It’s not only an identity, it is very hard to feel confident using a side of ourselves that we are not very good at using—we hate feeling like a beginner because we see life as a linear progression, and don’t want to return to the bottom of the social hierarchy. 

Because both individuation and connection with others matter to us, and since it often seems our identity matters in those processes, we have an identity that we show others because we think it is important to them. Additionally, we have an identity that we think it important to us. There is our concept of “I” as ego, which is how we imagine ourselves, there is “I” as persona, which is how we imagine others see us, and there is the “I” we don’t show others and don’t try to think about ourselves, which is the shadow. 

If you made two lists, not factoring in what other people think, one of the specific instances or things that make you feel like you have self-worth, and one list of specific instances or things that make you feel you don’t have self-worth, you would know what identities are in your ego. 

If you make another two lists, but this time instances you feel others see your self-worth and instances you think they see a lack of self-worth, that will give you an idea what taboos and ideas make up the identities in your persona.

If you made a list of things you typically don’t brag about because you know they are kind of messed up, but you don’t really regret doing. Also adding to the list things people have accused you of doing that you deny… though not entirely accurate, it would be a good hint at what kind of things are in your shadow. 

Look through all the lists and see what either contradicts itself, is not true, or out of your control. If you find anything on that list that seems to not contradict itself, is true, and in your control, consider if the action itself has value, or whether doing it proves something. With what remains, consider what the cost of doing it is. 

We will end up seeing more value in life and doing more about it, if we are focused on what we want to do, and not what we want to prove. It doesn’t matter who we are proving something to, it could be for someone we love, or someone we hate, or even ourself; proving is not doing. This does not mean we shouldn’t feel proud of ourselves, it means we shouldn’t aim for that feeling but the actual action that can produce a positive sense of self. 

Some things in life bring mixed feelings or require a big investment of time and energy before positive feels will accompany it, and we don’t want to miss out on those things just because we lacked awareness, imagination or will-power.

This process is best seen through the character Hulk. Doctor Bruce Banner sees himself as a calm person, who can use his brain to solve problems without being aggressive. In the first Avenger’s movie, Bruce Banner takes a passive role, letting other people like Tony Stark make the calls. This is due to the fact that assertiveness is something Bruce Banner had not developed. When there was no option to solve a situation another way, that assertiveness explosively came out as the Hulk, which was out of control, solving all problems by smashing things. This is the root of anxiety, the fear that our inner-Hulk will come out and smash our self-image and our image to other people as “a nice person.” It is near impossible to go through life without being assertive, and it is only in this modern era that seems somewhat feasible, but only if we master passive-aggression, which some people sadly have… 

In beautiful archetypal symbolism, at the start of Avengers Infinity War Bruce Banner realizes that his shadow, the Hulk, can’t actually fix the problem at hand by smashing things. Whereas in the first Avengers Bruce Banner took a passive role to Tony Stark, in Infinity War, he comes back and tells Tony Stark what is up.  Despite that is looked like the reason was that the Hulk was scared, or it was just a joke—it wasn’t some fluke or phallic double entendre when Bruce Banner couldn’t become the Hulk when he thought he needed to, it was because the misunderstood contents of his inner shadow were finally brought into the light, he was assertive and it wasn’t the end of the world because of it, it would have been the end of the world if he hadn’t. Bruce Banner spend so much time trying to suppress his inner Hulk and found that staying anxious was the only way to do it, but slowly realized what the Hulk could do. He integrated the good or real parts of the Hulk, and then there was nothing left, but then got scared when that explosively aggressive feelingless part of himself would have been very helpful. It is scary to integrate our shadow because true power often doesn’t carry the same illusion and feeling of power that aggression does. 

The shadow is our inner-defense mechanism, which while suppressed in the dark corners of our heart and mind, cannot act on what the heart or mind sees, because it is in the shadow, and so it only mindlessly and heartlessly reacts. We feel it when our inner Hulk comes out, and we should ask ourselves when it does, “What am I defending against?” If what we are defending against is doesn’t have much value or logic, we should just let it go. I think most of the time the hulk comes out is when some part of our identity is threatened. “Everyone will think I am a liar, just because that stupid person did…” Okay, well, whether some makes you look like a liar or not, adding actually being aggressive or passive aggressive to your life and your identity won’t help. 

Doctor Strange is very similar to Dr. Banner, but Doctor Strange is totally fine being assertive… too fine being assertive. There is something in Taoism called “wu wei” which is doing by not doing. In every situation, we can find something we can do to be assertive, but not always something logically good, or that is meaningful, and if we choose it, then we are consciously choosing the sub-optimal. We should have a logical expectation for our actions. The Infinity War was all about poor logical expectations. How Dr. Strange talked with Ironman, the way Thor talked with Star Lord, and what Star Lord did when they were fighting Thanos. Doesn’t it seem logical to be condescending and combative to a crew of people who just saved you, and already have the same objective, and are already willing to work with you? No…

Does it seem logical to do some emotionally charged thing to Thanos before you take the gauntlet off? Especially when it was literally almost off? No!

“I just want them to know how much I hate them…” why? What do you hope comes from that?

This is where wu wei comes in when all you see are sub-optimal choices, you don’t settle, you keep looking. I think Dr. Strange realized, that survival as he was imagining it was not actually the greatest good in life—the opposite of life was not actual death. He realized that running from pain and death is completely different than running towards what we see has value and logic. That letting always letting fear control us was worse than letting love guide us with the change that circumstance would occasionally get in our way. 

Our conception of death has the greatest impact on our conception of life. Death, being a variable in the equation that we can neither control nor understand and since the most contentment and composure in life comes when we don’t factor death in as a variable in the equation of life, it seems logical and meaningful to just dismiss it. This doesn’t mean we recklessly put our lives in danger, but that when the occasion comes where we should, that suit up and give it our best. Iron Man had a better logical expectation for hitching a ride to save Dr. Strange than Spiderman, but both knew it wasn’t a small risk. Just as Tony Stark finally wants to settle down, get married, be a father-figure, he has to be willing to sacrifice it all. Each asset in life has an associated risk or cost, and if we amalgamate more risks without specifically associated assets, then our inner big picture of life is chalked full of only risks, leaving us in a port-traumatic-like anxiety. When we amalgamate more concepts of specific assets to live in our big picture of life without their associated risks, then we find ourselves in a manic rollercoaster experience of life which leads us back to where we started with nothing changed except how nauseous we are. 

Tony Stark jumping on that ship to save Dr. Strange knew very well the cost it would come at now that he actually knew he had something to lose, and he also knew the associated asset to the risk he was taking, and it wasn’t just for the thrill of it. All to often when we look at the world around us, most of what we see is what we project onto it, we don’t see the world for what it actually is, but what it could or might do to our identity. When we factor our identity out of our perception of the world, we start to see it for what it is. Once we see the world or life for what is actually is, what we should or can actually do is a lot more clear. Our assumptions of life, as the increasingly have less to do with our identity, will increasingly be better at predicting the outcome of our actions. 

When our internal big picture of life accurately contains actual specific assets and specific risks, then we can truly make a choice, instead of gambling. The root of fear and pain is the unknown, and the journey towards life, is towards awareness and understanding, which meaning going to the darkest places in our heart and mind and bringing the light to them. The monster lurking in the shadows of our heart and mind is not something we have no control over, it is the immature parts of us that need sunlight to grow. Our psyche has three components, our intuition or awareness, our intellect or imagination, and our will-power or determination. When we get defensive, these are what we are trying to protect.

Can awareness be harmed? Well, no matter what happens to awareness, it is becoming more aware of the types of different things that happen, which is what it seems to be trying to do… so, it probably can’t be harmed.

Can imagination be harmed? Well, no matter what happens to the imagination, being exposed to more possibilities of ways things can be combined, and what types of synergistic effects can result, which increases the ability to consider more possibilities… so, also, it probably is not able to be hurt.

Can determination be hurt? “The will” is what pulls the awareness and imagination together, and so if both of them are tested and refined through experience, especially difficult experiences, then more refined they would be easier to pull together… so, also, “the will” probably can’t be hurt.

The worse a trial or conflict is, the less likely we would have voluntarily explored that type of situation for insight. Also, the less relatable an unpleasant situation is, the less likely we would have taken the time and energy to understand the motives behind it to find out how similar they are to ours. Not that we should jump head first into danger, but when a trial comes, we can use it to learn and grow, and endure temporary pain for a permanent increase in contentment and composure. Often where we learn the most, is where we don’t want to go.

None of the Avengers would be who they are without the trials that have tested them and pushed them beyond their preconceived limitations. The word avenge comes from the root “to claim” and there is so much that is ours to claim in life if we don’t let fear keep us from trying.