No-one is born a villain. People almost never wake up and
say, “I think I've decided to be evil today.” Not even a psychopathic killer thinks
they're the bad guy. They all have very good reasons for doing what they're
doing. In fact, from their own perspective, they're actually the hero of this
story. Selflessly taking on the burden of responsibility no-one else will, be
it teaching the gullible to be less trusting, deposing the powerful so that all
may benefit from their own benevolent rule, or ridding the world of an entire
race that has brought nothing but misery. For such lofty goals, no price is too
great. Gaslighting and gulags, all part of the sacrifice a benevolent leader
must make. After all, they're the hero of this story, so of course it's all
justified.
That may sound hyperbolic, but it's sadly all too real. The
motivations are real, both in history, and to this day. I was stunned to hear
this very philosophy espoused by a young man working on a political campaign.
He said, because he's on “the right side” of history, he would “lie, cheat, and
steal,” to see his desired outcome fulfilled. What’s surprising is that he
actually said it out loud, but otherwise it's something I tongue-in-cheek refer
to as the “Hero Complex.” I’m the hero of the story, so of course I’m in the
right.
In another incident, a woman said to my sister “Why should
he have a trial? We know he's guilty.” A person with no first (or even second)
hand knowledge of the situation believed that they were so right in their
judgment that a complete stranger should be imprisoned and have their life
destroyed simply because they “knew” he was guilty. Again, the Hero Complex,
this time appearing as a little tyrant in the heart of an otherwise very giving
person.
Before writing Gatewalkers, I studied what I call “perfect
villainy.” I needed to learn how to write a better villain than you see in most
movies. I needed a villain who could hold power without anyone knowing he was
the architect of their enslavement. Well, anyone but the people he'd brutally
exterminated in the name of peace and equality. Through this study I learned
how the best manipulators and abusers look like good people. They set brother
against brother, daughter against mother, and never break a sweat because the
enemy is always someone else. He convinces ordinary people to commit atrocities
for the greater good, to enact genocide in the bland way of a pencil-pusher,
and to enslave people by giving them everything they need.
But I realize now I didn't go far enough. I did not yet
fully understand the scope of what was before me. That was a good villain, but
there is one better. The hero who overthrows that villain, and then takes their
throne. After all, he had the right idea, but he failed because he was The Bad
Guy ™. But I'm the hero, the Good Guy ™, so I'll get it right. But they fail to
realize the most ancient truth: The line between good and evil is not out
there, on some battlefield, but it runs through each human heart. If we cannot
see our capacity to become the villain of the story, or how our good intentions
could lead to evil, we are more likely to become that evil.
We knew this once upon a time. The hero was a hero not
because they were the main character, and therefore everything they did was
right. First they did what was right, and in doing that, they became a hero.
And that is where the final brilliance of Perfect Villainy
comes in. Once upon a time, we had an objective standard of good and evil that
our culture more or less adhered to. Then the philosophy of moral relativism
(the concept of “my truth” and “your truth,”) came in, and stripped away those
underpinnings. Most defenders of traditional morality thought that having no
concrete morality was the end goal, then anyone could do whatever they wanted.
But that was because they had not studied Perfect Villainy.
As G.K. Chesterton put it, when people stop believing in
God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything. With the old
morality stripped away, the canny villain can then introduce their own moral
code, one where their own villainy is the new morality. Perhaps theft is now
moral in the name of equity, murder in the name of equality, and genocide in
the name of justice. Without a morality centered in something greater than you,
greater than society, something eternal, if you will, who wouldn't fall for this?
You may now lie, cheat, steal, and murder, because you are the hero, and that's
what heroes do.
If we do not realize our own potential for great evil, we
are all the more likely to become it. Maybe not in graphic ways, but the Second
World War was the poster child for the banality of evil; the Twentieth Century,
its showcase. Millions died at the stroke of a pen, millions more enslaved in
the name of equality. Now a new generation rises. It sees the horrors of the
past, and thinks, “But if I had been in charge...” If we do not see
ourselves for what we really are, if we do not face the darkness within our own
hearts, then the cycle continues, and the Villain's Tale may become our own.
Perhaps someday I'll write a script about this. It sounds like a good story. But for now, I just have to make sure I don't live it.
