As a writer, I am also a student
of human nature. I expose human frailties
through my characters. It’s what
identifies some as villains and some as heroes. Villains often feed off hatred
or utilize hate to manipulate others. They are often hate mongers who utilize
the lowest aspects of human nature to provoke feelings of hatred in others and
seek nothing more than to spread hate throughout communities, nations or entire
worlds.
How they use hatred varies. They
may tap into hidden prejudices in other people’s hearts and use it as an
advantage, or they may directly feed the hatred from their own hearts to
amplify their powers. Adolf Hitler used
hate to his advantage. His method was
simple and straight forward. He said, “I
use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.” He used bigotry,
racism, xenophobia, and misogyny to promote violence.
Hate raises its ugly head when we
feel under attack or threatened. It
seems as though we, as human beings require a scapegoat. It’s as if we need someone or some group to
look down on, to blame for the ills in our society and our own inadequacies. In
fiction, this weakness is exploited to manipulate the reader’s sympathies in
favor of the hero. He refuses to stand
idly by and, by his silence, let this hateful message be perpetrated.
The conflict arises out of the
need for the hero or heroine to combat this hatred. It is tempting to pit the hero against the
villain in a classic battle of good vs. evil.
However, as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Darkness cannot drive out
darkness, only light can do that.” This makes for a more difficult
plotline. The winner is not always clear
and sometimes the hero must lose the battle to enhance the outrage against the
villain, and in this way, incite the masses to action against him.
In this year of political
upheaval, it is important for us to guard against the volcanic eruption of
political propaganda that feeds on human passions and emotions. We must
remember that all propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to
the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach. Hitler recognized this weakness when he said, “How
fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.”
Therefore, I urge you, if you are going to make an important
decision regarding religion or politics, listen to many points of view and not just
those of the hate mongers. Be a hero.
