For this Friday’s song that will get you moving, I offer The Rolling Stones and “Sympathy for the Devil.” Recently there have been a lot of movies, books, Broadway shows, etc, that have sought to portray villains as people who are just misunderstood, who are really good people forced to go bad by circumstance. Personally, I think this is a dodge. I think we don’t want to admit that there’s something attractive about villains. We find them compelling, admirable, sexy, and so we want to nerf them as a way to deny those emotions, , to make us feel better about ourselves, because really, aren’t we all good people?
Me, I prefer my bad guys bad. Not because I want to deny that I am like they are, but the exact opposite; when we tell ourselves we are good people, we make it possible to excuse our evil actions, both those we have already committed, and, more importantly, those we have yet to commit.
Come have sympathy for the devil. And dance your heart out.
Various and Sundry 