Well. Alan supposed Will was right about all that, but Alan still wanted to believe that, with each passing day, mankind became a little kinder. Maybe that was naïve and childish. It didn't pass by Alan's notice that Will had been kidnapped and tortured right before his girlfriend had, so he didn't have much reason to believe in goodness.
Luckily for Will, Alan could try and believe in it enough for both of them. "Then I measure that the best we can do is keep on being the sort of men we want to see in the world, and keep encouraging the next generation to do the same. That's why I'm teaching the free music classes for these kids," Alan said, thinking back on the little room of tweens and their guitars. "Some of them boys've got no outlets, no one expectin' them to be anything at all, just followin' down the same bad paths. They're not bad kids, but it'd be so easy to turn into bad men because no one gives 'em a chance. But you should see the way some of them soften and light up when they learn to play their chords. Brings me joy to see it."