Sympathy For The Villains
On The Idea of Good and Evil in the Post-Trump, Post Moore World
2017 has been the year of villains.
From political nightmares to deranged terrorism to systemic violence, sexual and otherwise, there has rarely been a time when villains have dominated the public discourse as much as they have this year.
So much so, that I woke up today to what can only be described as a collective, virtual sigh of relief and a timeline celebrating the fall of a pervert. A child predator not being elected to office is a low, low bar for anything, especially a democracy, and yet the celebrations weren’t out of place given the very real, dreadful possibility that Alabama may as well have voted for Moore. And why not? The worse has happened.
No wonder, the celebrations across social media are underscored by a clear derision for that large chunk of Alabama voters who had, publicly and vocally, sworn allegiance to Moore. They were after all the force behind the devil or would have been, had the good sense, at least this once, not prevailed.
But while derision is an easy response, the turn of events through 2017, has posed a much larger question about our supposed ‘collective morality’ as an illusion that is fast losing its sheen.
From Trump voters to Moore supporters to people who were willing to sympathize with power exploiting perverts, all of them share a few common characteristics. They are vocal, unapologetic and in large numbers. Larger than perhaps most of us are comfortable admitting. And much as we would like to ‘other’ them, they are one of us.
It is easy to dub these affiliation and sympathies on grounds like political beliefs, ideological whitewashing, or plain old patriarchal mindset. Which are all perfectly valid reasons and justifications and causes on their account. But this trend, this dominant, prevalent wave that seems to have taken over our times is also raising important questions about human nature, and our conditioned understanding of good and evil.
If we think that sympathizing with the devil is a recent phenomena, or a phenomena exclusively confined to certain arenas, one has to remember that historically dictators and autocrats have been known to enjoy immense public support. Whether it was the rise of the Nazis or the barbarism of someone like say Chengez Khan, there was always a significant segment of their population who stood behind them to the extent of blatant idolization. Back here in India, Indira Gandhi was re-elected as the Prime Minister of India despite being the author of one of the darkest chapters in the recent Indian history — the Emergency. Narendra Modi is the current Prime Minister of India despite a chequered, riot torn political history. And let’s not forget, a huge reason why British continued to rule India for 200 years despite their exploitative colonial policies was the support they enjoyed from a significant chunk of local sympathizers.
At a much more personal level, falling for the bad boys is a romantic trope older than time, and women falling in love with prison inmates is a well known, well documented phenomena.
The waters of our morality have always been murky. The reasons vary from ideology to selfish ambitions to greed to admiration to ‘love of art’ to compulsions. But frankly, our engagement with our own morality is always convenient, conditioned and a product of a life time of experiences.
None of this means being pedophile or a murderer or predator or just an all round obnoxious human being is okay. What it does mean is that our engagement with all the so called ideas of right and wrong, and how we define our understanding of evil is not as cut and dry as we’d like it to be. And while it may still be a stretch to assert that we as a culture reward immorality, one only has to look at the last year to assess how blatantly outrageous and supposedly immoral conduct does nothing to stop someone from being elected, say, as the President.
This whole phenomena gets best represented in our engagement with fiction. A couple of days ago, while tumbling around on Tumblr, I discovered a whole new world of Lucifer fans. No, not Satan worshippers in the Biblical sense. But fans of a character on Tumblr’s darling and a much adored show called Supernatural. What is important to note here that Lucifer even within the show’s canon is no hero. He is a terrifying character with an irredeemably evil history, and has been regularly shown to commit horrendous acts and victimize innocent souls. And yet, his fans are earnest in their adoration, willing to gift him a redemption arc in their fan-fiction, and backing this ‘misunderstood’ soul with well considered reasoning, and an almost viable, sob worthy backstory.
This is the not the only instance of villains being the surprising recipient of fan-adoration, not in ‘oh that is so deliciously evil’ sort of way, which would be normal from a fiction lover’s point of view, but more from a rather questionable place of sympathy.
A huge chunk of Sherlock fans consider Moriarty, his arch-nemesis, a misunderstood genius. Voldemort’s tragic backstory has long been a subject of extensive discussions in Harry Potter fandom and of course, countless number of fans were delighted to find reasons to love Loki in the recent Thor Ragnarok movie.
While it is easy to hide behind the curtain of ‘but it is fiction, not real’ excuse, one must acknowledge that fiction (and the people who love fiction) is ultimately a microcosm of our reality. To ignore it may be easy, but perhaps it is wiser to use it as an excuse to consider and appreciate the ideas which we may be emotionally and morally incapable of addressing in real life.
Fictional villains are deliberate designs. They are meant to be evil. A convincing backstory does lend layers and complexity and nuance to the character, but ultimately even an entirely inexcusable, unforgivably dark villain has its own merits. Writers don’t always create their villains with a scope for redemption, or explanation of their actions. And yet, it is not uncommon to find fans/readers/audience propagating theories that explain and offer redemption to the villains that were designed to be irredeemable.
This is not to judge or summarily criticize fans and their reactions. Appreciation of art is intensely personal, and to an extent sacrosanct enough to warrants no value or moral judgment. This is simply an attempt to illustrate how fluid the idea of evil and morality can be, and how easy it is for us to forgive the greatest of sinners when they fit our agenda, whether emotional, political or ideological.
The narrative that tends to ‘other’ the people who openly support the supposed villains, whether real or fictional, is not only more than a little hypocritical, but also conveniently ignores the fact that humanity as a whole is not designed to be good and virtuous. Or at least, just good and virtuous. It is a fact that obviously makes us uncomfortable but it is a fact nevertheless, and often it only takes a flip of perspective and/or circumstances to turn our heroes into villains, and our morality into abject pit of despairing immorality.
Sympathetic admiration of fictional villains doesn’t make their fans evil by default. It is just an emotional response to a resonance they might have felt with parts of the said villain’s identity or personality or backstory or ideology or emotional baggage.
There is a reason why heroes dealing with their own darkness and consistently choosing to fight it, is a widely prevalent trope in fiction. Stories that fascinate us the most are often about heroes who harbor a dark side while choosing to do good. Sympathetic admiration of villain is a derivative version of this very idea — where we choose our own heroes regardless of their moral arc, and allow them a redemption, at least in our own heads. Perhaps because it gives us hope of being able to fight our own monsters and find our own redemption, whatever it may be.
Of course, real world is not as neat and explainable as its fictional counterpart. And perhaps it is not easy to make sense of the other side where the supporters of Moores and Weinsteins and Trumps of the world thrive and make noise. But it does help to remember that under a different set of circumstances and for a different set of people/ideals/beliefs, it can easily be us on the other side of that fence. People who support monsters are not monsters, just another set of humans, responding to a different emotional/ideological/political stimuli. .
Moral high ground is a treacherous perch, especially in times like us, when the whole idea of morality itself is in flux. We all ought to fight our own darkness, and hold our grounds and keep fighting the good fight. Now more than ever. But we all need to do it with an awareness of our own darkness, an awareness that we are always just a step away from the next pitfall, and perhaps a better understanding of those on the other side of our moral fence.
Because not everyone deserves a redemption arc. But it is only moral and ideal that we always allow a space for those who do or at least try to do. Including us.
This is the seventy fifth installment in my 100 days, 100 blogs challenge. In case you missed it, the previous installment is about You and Me.
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