Romanticization of evil: A rant.

Sable

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It requires a particular level of depravity for a person to find arousal in either another person's pain or the exposing of that person's viscera. Popular media likes to glorify killers who partake in necrophilia and sexual sadism as a compulsion. But the reality is that these sorts of people are disgusting creatures partaking in disgusting activities and the only attention that is entitled to them is that which is given during the process of their sentencing. I never understood the fascination with these sorts of types in the media until recently. I think that for the most part it isn't a fascination in the actions committed by these types themselves, but rather the esoteric or exclusive nature of such actions. People (in my experience) are generally drawn toward things that are mysterious or otherwise unfamiliar and unknown and often will romanticize such things. At face value, this is harmless. However, I feel that this romanticism can culminate in real-world action and perhaps even in a shift in the values of a demographic when extended to its extreme as people are desensitized over time and develop a desire to imitate.

It is something deeper than psychopathy and sociopathy. Psycho and sociopaths, while not necessarily feeling remorse for their actions will still experience emotions such as disgust or revolt. So, to be attracted to something as vile as the idea of taking apart another person requires another factor, a deeper factor. These sorts of people are not to be praised. They are to be scorned and are not deserving of a place within the community or within the media.

What I don't think people understand is the extra level of calculation and consciousness that is involved in such a process. A level beyond what is required to do a person harm. These people are genuinely without the responses which you, I and most other normal people share. They possess the same understandings but they are either too apathetic or villainous to adhere to them.

You will have to excuse my ramble. I know it is not like my usual short style of posting. But this is a topic I which I do feel emotional about and would like to explore.

What do you think causes such behaviors? Is it evil or something else?
 
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h00

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Rather than deal with the pain of being human, some choose to become beasts.
Those that admire such people believe them to be powerful.
But the power to take life and the power to destroy is a common power, a lower power. Those that admire it or fantasize about taking part in such acts are weak themselves, of mind and spirit.

But I think in most cases, such as the common fascination of serial killers and true-crime, it just comes from a human morbid curiosity. We are apalled yet intrigued and excited by these kinds of stories and characters. It's sensational.

I do wonder though why some people develop a genuine admiration and at times even an idolization for these characters, an interest far beyond just intrigue and morbid curiosity (like the tumblr stans for the Columbine shooters). Does it still come from the some place as morbid curiosity just taken to an nth degree? Or does it come from someplace else entirely?
 
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ZinRicky

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but rather the esoteric or exclusive nature of such actions
This is the answer. If brushing your teeth was forbidden, you would be amazed that some people would brush their teeth while hidden
 
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Jade

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This is the answer. If brushing your teeth was forbidden, you would be amazed that some people would brush their teeth while hidden
Very true. The reason these sort of forbidden actions are so fascinating in the modern day, even compared to antiquity, is due to how powerful the organizations which create the laws - written and unwritten - have become. So to defy a law made by so powerful an entity, with such great potential consequences if caught, attracts wonder from the casual observer.

But the core of the matter goes far beyond mere defiance. There can be no laws without crime, no heroes without villains, no good without evil. In "The Lightning and the Sun", Savitri Devi writes:

The man "in Time" can have any aim, with the exception of a
disinterested one (which would at once raise him "above Time''). He himself
is always like a blind force of destructive Nature. (That is the reason why so
many thoroughly "bad" characters in literature and in the theatre are so
attractive, in their forceful evil.) He has no ideology. Or rather, his ideology
is himself, separated from the divine Whole — i.e., it is the
disintegration of the Whole (of the universe) for the benefit of himself, and,
ultimately, the destruction of himself also, although he does not know it or
does not care. And that is the case in every instance. But under certain
conditions, when his action takes, in human history, the permanent
importance that a great geological cataclysm has in the history of the earth,
then, as I said, the man "in Time" disappears from our sight, and in his,
place — but still bearing his features, — appears, in all His dramatic
majesty, Mahakala, the eternal Destroyer. It is Him Whom we adore in the
great lightning individuals such as Genghis Khan — Him; not them. They
are only the clay images inhabited by Him for a few brief years. And just as
the clay image hides and suggests the invisible God or Goddess — Power
everlasting — so does their selfishness both hide and reveal the impersonal
purposefulness of Life; the destructive phase of the divine Play, in which
already lies the promise of the new dawn to come.

We are relatively unmoved by small acts of cruelty, as we are undisturbed by a gentle breeze forming ripples in a puddle. But when the great storms churn up the sea, and birth waves of such size and scope they are beyond the ability of Man to truly fathom, then we feel a sense of wonder, and see the face of divinity contained within - not because divinity is not also present in the ripples of the puddle, but because it is simply more difficult to notice due to the scale of Man and the limitations of his senses. The feeble flickering of the candle-light appears unremarkable, but the ever-burning flames of the Sun inspired the great solar cults of antiquity - and perhaps also of the future.
 
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Jessica3cho雪血⊜青意

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People (in my experience) are generally drawn toward things that are mysterious or otherwise unfamiliar and unknown and often will romanticize such things. At face value, this is harmless. However, I feel that this romanticism can culminate in real-world action and perhaps even in a shift in the values of a demographic when extended to its extreme as people are desensitized over time and develop a desire to imitate.
Studies show that people are drawn to media that allows a vicarious experience. People who are not prone to these actions use fantasy (the psychological definition) to experience these things without having to break their moral code (and real life laws in some cases) [or step into situations that would normally terrify them], thus further suppressing any desire to actually partake in the action. The only people this will spur on to take real action are those who were already prone to taking those real actions.

There is an argument to make that "allowable" media can help shape the morality of a culture, but this is a long-term affect. Something that will slowly build over generations and thusly require a slow change over generations to make a desired change. Typically, though, it is a few markedly respected individuals who tend to shape the morality of society through some means of imposition (and typically using various means).
 
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Orlando Smooth

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Can you provide an example of what you're talking about? I don't disagree with anything you've said but I also don't generally think of these kind of people as being glorified in media. Usually I feel like they end up the victim of their own actions in some kind of cosmic karma kind of way, or are hated by the other characters and portrayed as the bad guy anyways.
 
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JihyoParkXX

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I know Patrick Bateman is piece of shit but c'mon look at him he's so cool and based, you can't tell me he's not.
Christian-Bale-as-Patrick-Bateman-in-American-Psycho-2000.jpg

But I draw the line at fictional characters. Real killers like Dahmer, Manson and the Columbine shooters who have cults that worship them shouldn't be glorified in the media like at all. It's dangerous when actual people suffered and the murders took place.
 
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cuneicorn

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how does someone like uncle ted fit into all of this? I feel like his actions were motivated just as much by justified fear of certain types of tech as general misanthropy
 
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stonehead

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Can you provide an example of what you're talking about? I don't disagree with anything you've said but I also don't generally think of these kind of people as being glorified in media. Usually I feel like they end up the victim of their own actions in some kind of cosmic karma kind of way, or are hated by the other characters and portrayed as the bad guy anyways.
I'm not OP, but I think he was talking more about individuals romanticizing evil people, not about pop culture in general. Some examples would be all the people sending Jeffrey Dahmer fan letters, and all the fan blogs that popped up 'stanning' the Columbine shooters. I found some links, but none of them were SFW.
 

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I technically consider myself an evil person because I often have those fantasy of abusing power (i.e being a corrupt politician imagining myself purposely setting the world asunder), but in reality being evil require effort and so is not very pratical.

I am not sure where this started, but I think depictions of villains as being those mysterious, badass and powerful persons awoke something in me. Thankfully the most amount of power I had in my life was being part of a school council and being mods in some Discord servers lol.
 

Polonius

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I technically consider myself an evil person because I often have those fantasy of abusing power (i.e being a corrupt politician imagining myself purposely setting the world asunder), but in reality being evil require effort and so is not very pratical.
In the end, I'd say everyone is evil at heart. Not necessarily "Adolf Hitler says 'KILL ZE VEAKLINGS!'" type evil, but how many people have wanted, in their darker thoughts, however fleeting, "I want that person dead," "I would steal 'X' thing in a heartbeat," "I wish I could cheat on my spouse," etc. Everyone has dark thoughts, I don't think there's really any exception, in the end.

How many people are only kept from evil actions by fear of legal repercussions? Can someone, who only refrains from great evil out of fear for his own safety, not be considered evil? Think about how many kids, I would think most or all of them, are inclined naturally to steal, lie, and use force against others to get their way. Kids have to be disciplined in order to suppress these inclinations, for while a child is small they may be limited to stealing a toy or pushing a kid at the playground, but scale these behaviors up to adulthood and you find that the child who was once so small and 'harmless' is harmless no longer.

It's why in the Bible we are told that we can't earn salvation, that evil is inside of us, but Christ took our rightful punishment so we can have pardon. It's a huge downer to think about how screwed up everything is, but there is hope, and an eternal hope at that.
 
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