X-Git-Url: https://code.kerkeslager.com/?p=wiki-pages;a=blobdiff_plain;f=no-disney-villains.md;fp=no-disney-villains.md;h=ea5317f078bb0f15f81267b848ee2f6dbd109ef7;hp=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000;hb=72868e8a349f87542b17fd9c553edb483c67b9c1;hpb=b5446eb910c2ed624ae47ad3f3cc3867b6b79e38 diff --git a/no-disney-villains.md b/no-disney-villains.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea5317f --- /dev/null +++ b/no-disney-villains.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +There are no Disney villains. + +In this essay, when I say "Disney villain", I mean the archetypical villain +from older Disney movies, where the villain is just bad for no reason. Disney +villains have no motivation, not even personal gain: they merely are evil for +evil's sake. + +The idea of a Disney villain is attractive because it's simple. There's no +ethical quandary with a Disney villain: while not every villain in older Disney +movies actually dies, the stakes are similar: it's kill or be killed. There's +no ethical debate about whether it's wrong to kill a Disney villain, because +there's no other option. They're the bad guys, and if the good guys pull any +punches, *the bad guys win*. We don't want that, do we? + +While Disney villains are fine as a plot device in movies, the problem arises +when we begin to treat people as Disney villains in real life. People in real +life do bad things, but they aren't Disney villains. There are the occasional +mentally ill people who are internally compelled to do things even they believe +are bad. But in most cases, people who do bad things do those bad things because +they believe what they believe those bad things are good things. Good +intentions are easily perverted by fear or ignorance.