Heroic Tale: Heroes Only In Their Own Minds

Throughout history, there have been many names that struck fear in the hearts of men. Men like Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, and Saddam Hussein ruled through terror. However, one thing they all had in common was that they believed that they were the heroes of their stories. In their own minds, each of them was the protagonist of his own heroic tale. And though I hope none of us aspire to the great atrocities that these men accomplished, we are all the heroes of our own stories as well.

Never the Villain

No one strives to be a villain. In our own internal narratives of our lives, each of us is the hero of our own story. Even the vilest human being on the planet sees his motives as being altruistic. However, no matter how noble someone believes they are, ultimately society determines whether or not that person is of pure character or if they are evil.

Always the Hero

As hard as it is to believe, the most despicable dictators in history viewed themselves as heroes in their own minds. They viewed themselves as correcting some sort of social injustice. They saw themselves as freedom fighters and revolutionaries, freeing the oppressed masses from persecution. However, many of them in the process of granting freedom to the masses became persecutors themselves.

When you analyze your own life and dissect your own motives, do you always find the purest intentions? On the surface, we all reason away many of the actions that we take that are ignoble. Hopefully, in our lives, we take more actions that have pure intent than actions that are selfish and harmful to others.

Dissecting Literary Villains

This brings us to the topic of well written literary villains. While the mustache-twirling, top hat wearing villain that ties the damsel in distress to the train tracks is a much-overdone trope historically, we find that many of the best-written villains are the ones that the reader can sympathize with. The best-written villains are the ones that have backstories and motives that make us sympathetic to their causes.

We relate to these villains so well because they emulate what goes through the minds of real-life villains. They see themselves as righting some sort of injustice or imbalance. Whether it is Anakin Skywalker bringing order to his galaxy or Magneto organizing mutant-kind’s revolution against their human oppressors, these villains see themselves as being noble leaders of the oppressed, very much in the mold of a Hitler or a Stalin.

Discover The True Motives

The key to finding the roots of evil acts is to find the villain’s intent. What caused them to commit acts that society deems reprehensible? Only by peacefully resolving these human issues can we prevent real-life villains from coming to fruition.

Look within yourself for the motives to your actions. Ultimately, if we all abide by the Golden Rule, we can prevent our own villainous potential.

Teaser: Next time we’ll discuss what it means to be empathic.