Everyone is familiar with the stereotypical villain. He usually dresses in black, has dark eyebrows, and laughs manaically. He hurts people all the time, simply because he is EEE-VIL. I believe that these kinds of villains are possibly acceptable for children’s stories, but that’s it.
Why? Because it’s too simple. In the real world, people don’t do things just because they are EEE-VIL. People act for reasons that seem perfectly good and acceptable to them. So, people don’t think, “I want to be evil.” They think, “I want what’s coming to me” or “I want to be happy, and screw the rest of them” or “It is for the greater good that I slaughter these people” or “The progress of history is inevitable” or “The needs of democracy demand it”. Everyone has reasons for what they do that seems good and right.
So, I want villains that reflect this. A good example of this, actually, is all the John le Carre novels that I’ve been reading recently. In The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, British intelligence preserved one of their agents in East Germany through an elaborate operation. This required the sacrifice of two British citizens, as well as the framing of an ambitious East German official. Oh, and did I mention that this agent was an ex-Nazi who still hated Jews? Who is the villain here? The Communists or the British? The British spymasters in this story did what they did for King and Country, but I have a hard time saying that they were on the side of the angels. They were patriots, but does that justify what they did? Regardless of the answer that you give, you can certainly understand the simple logic that led them to make their choices.
I wonder if this is why we don’t believe that an entire world religion could be given over to such hatred that has been displayed by Islam. I think that we want to believe that evil is limited to a select few, those who would qualify as being EE-VIL. But, the reality is that we’re all evil, and, apart from the grace of God, we are all capable of doing such atrocious acts. Hitler was no more evil than the rest of us; he just had more power to accomplish his evil. And, you know what? He had a list of very good reasons for everything he did.
Which leads me to this comment by Ben. The assumption here is that most groups of people are generally good, except for some bad apples. But is this really true? If we are really all evil people, then isn’t it possible that we could create evil institutions, evil governments, evil religions? Isn’t it possible that there could be many who have been taught that the American culture is an offense against God and must be abolished by any means necessary?
Or do you really believe that the problem is just black-cloaked “fundamentalists” who “hate our freedom” because they are EE-VIL? Â
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I don’t believe that people are ‘generally good’ /or/ ‘generally bad’; we’re just people. My point is that if you pick any group of people that is sufficiently large, you find examples of about every kind of character. There are Christians, Muslims, Jews, and atheists that do terrible things to other people. There are also members of all those religions (as well as atheists) that are kind, generous, selfless members of society.
People don’t do evil things because of religion. Rather, ‘evildoers’ use religion to short-circuit the logic of their followers. There are millions of suckers out there who would never obey an order to kill from Baruch Goldberg or Aasim Abu-Akeel, but when the order comes ‘from God’… who are they to question it?
There is one major reason that evil things will always be done in the name of religion; within religious groups, invididuals are generally discouraged from taking responsibility or questioning the ‘truth’. Do you feel queasy about detonating that bomb in your hand? Fugheddaboutit! A ‘higher power’ said to do it, so you’re not really responsible. Besides, that ‘higher power’ would never command you to do something that isn’t just and right… right?
In the end, I don’t terribly mind your assertion that strongly-religious Muslims contain a disproportionate number of ‘evil’ people… but only so long as you consider the same to be true of Christianity and Judaism as well.
Ye shall know them by their fruites. Doe men gather grapes of thornes? or figges of thistles? So euery good tree bringeth foorth good fruite, & a corrupt tree bringeth forth euill fruite. A good tree can not bring forth euil fruite: neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruite. Euery tree that bringeth not forth good fruite, is hewen downe, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruites ye shall knowe them. - Matthewe 7:16-20
dlr
Since you brought up the Brits, this is an opportune time to point out that they are the ones who invented the concentration camp (during the Boer War). Their reasons for using them were just as compelling as Hitler’s. The difference is that, of course, winners get to write the history books. The losers are always EE-VIL and the winners had to do what they did to save the world from the EE-VIL. (Reference FDR & Pearl Harbor.)