The Good, the Bad, and the Real

Recently I came across a very important book: MAUS, by Art Spiegelman.

Go read it. Highly recommendable.

It's always a pleasant surprise to find something that makes you think about your own work. In this case, it made me think about good and evil.

Most fiction makes it easy for the readers, by separating the cast in two easy categories, good and evil. Reality is not always like that. We know that the worst of crimes can be carried out with the best of intentions. So what happens when we put a fictional person in the "evil" role? How do we portray them as the villain we want to show?

That's actually a trope.

I have read piles upon piles of fantasy books that conform themselves with setting the bad guy in a dark tower, where he lives and does dark machinations, mwahaha.

Boring!

That'd be dealt with very easily in the real world. Either the bad guy's lair would be carpet-bombed to kingdom come, or he'd be elected president.

It all depends on Fox News, really.

I think that the real evil isn't out there, brooding in some dark fortress, commanding its minions to come and get us. That's just a little above the old boogeyman tale.

No, the real bad things happen from inside. From people we trust and love. From those you'd expect it the less. And inside every one of us, there is a surprising amount of darkness waiting to take hold.

Don't waste your time looking for the enemy who's looking to undermine your freedom and terminate your rights. You can face it in the mirror.