“Being smart will count for nothing if you don’t make the world better.”
– Horizon Zero Dawn
Frank Caprio has a reputation as the “nicest judge in the world”. For 38 years, he served in the Providence Municipal Court, where he oversaw low-level offenses, like parking and speeding tickets.
After his retirement, he was once asked if there were a particular case that still affected him. He heaved a sigh as he relived his memory. “I still get upset thinking about it,” he said. “I felt crumbled at that moment. I was on the bench for 38 years, and I still think of that case.”
It was his first day on the bench. His father, who was the “most decent man” he had known, was there to see how he was doing.
A woman stood before Frank with her three kids. She owed about $300 worth of parking tickets. She kept telling Frank that she didn’t have enough money to pay her fine. Frank suggested to put her on a payment plan, but she insisted that she wouldn’t be able to pay anyway. Eventually, Frank ruled that the fine must be paid, or her car would get clamped.
As the day was over, Frank asked his father for some feedback.
“Frank, that woman…” he said to Frank.
“What woman, Dad?” Frank replied.
“That woman who had three kids,” his father said. “You fined her.”
“Dad, she was arrogant. She was rude,” Frank replied. “I really had no choice.”
“She was scared,” his father told him. “You should have talked to her. You should have understood her problems. You can’t treat people like that, Frank.”
Thinking about that case decades later, Frank said, “I can tell you without fear of contradiction: it never happened again.”
Since then, Frank dealt with each and every case with a deep sense of empathy and compassion. Rather than merely punishing the defendants, he sought to help them. He made it a must for him to first understand the defendants’ personal circumstances, and how and why they got into trouble, before making a ruling. For Frank, this is what justice truly meant.
I’ve always believed that it’s more important to focus on being a good person, than a great artist. Because character is the glue that binds everything together. You can be amazing at what you do, but it doesn’t mean much if you’re not bringing any real value to people, or if you’re plainly an asshole in everyday life.
To quote the video game Horizon Zero Dawn, “Being smart will count for nothing if you don’t make the world better. You have to use your smarts to count for something, to serve life, not death.”
You can be a great marketer, but you’re not bringing value if you’re marketing harmful products. You can be a great lawyer, but you’re not bringing value if you’re defending genuinely horrible people who are in the wrong. You can be a great writer, but you’re not bringing value if you’re spewing hatred, propaganda, and defamation.
On the flip side, having good character, compassion, and empathy, is what leads to great art. When you actually care about something larger than yourself, you will have important things to say. You will have real value and real benefits to deliver through your art. And you don’t have to think too hard about it either, because it’s something that is honestly close to your heart.
Alan Moore, the legendary comic book writer behind Watchmen and V for Vendetta echoed this sentiment in his advice for aspiring writers. He said, “If you want to be a truly great writer, it is perhaps worth remembering that even in this, it is more important to be a good human being than it is to be a good writer. The artists…writers, painters, musicians…whose voices speak loudest to us across the centuries are those that turned out to have the most profound souls, those who turned out to actually have something to say that was of lasting human value.”
“Love people. Love yourself and love the world,” he continued. “It’s only when we love things that we really, truly see them in their most lucid and perfect aspect; that we truly know them. And if you want to write about something, then you must know it, must understand it as fully as possible. Must love it, even if it is unlovable. Particularly if it is unlovable.”
The world doesn’t need more great artists. It needs more good people who just happen to make great art.
Izzat Zailan 