One thing I learnt from : Comic Villains

Works of literature are distilled form of human perception patterns. In a way, they are more real than non-fiction. When we go through literature, we empathize with the character journey and find some parts of ourselves that we could relate to the characters. Things are not very factual in literature but so are ambiguities of life. Comics are a form of literature, why would not they be?

Machiavellianism is the use of the general principle of ’the ends justifying the means’. This means the Machiavellian person considers their goals to be of prime importance and that any method may be used to achieve them.

As I jaunted through the storyline of some comics, I noticed a common theme about the nature of villains. They all believe that “ends justify the means”. The villains are not stupid, or incompetent. The very line in their Machiavellian belief system that, the end that they see, should be achieved at any cost makes the difference of moral to immoral. Any terrorist also is working for a cause which he believes will serve a greater good. The oblivion of empathy and righteousness in the action to achieve a goal (however great) will make you a villain. This is the axis on which most antagonists are designed.

This has been the long fought thought-battle between deontology and consequentialism. This is what makes Gandhi such a popular figure, he took the path of non-violence, focused on actions rather than goals, even though it hurts to get slapped and not retaliate. If some of you hate Gandhi, then it is because of the things he did where he focused on consequence, rather than ethics of the actions. This is why Batman is the greatest hero, he has faced existential dread, veracious loss and numerous failure but he never kills the Joker. A hero looks at the virtue of his actions, consequences are anyway unpredictable. Without this will to pay the price of sticking to ethics, a hero is no good, he gives way to anarchy.