What causes people’s fascination with evil characters? Where does this morbid curiosity come from?
I pose the question after seeing the eye grabbing headline : Fritzl says he was ‘born to rape’ on the BBC news website. A horrid thing to claim on Joseph’s behalf wouldn’t you agree? The worrying thing though, is that without a moment’s hesitation I clicked through to the main story.
Literally; I saw the name ‘Fritzl’ and the outrageous reported quote attributed to him and my mind made a snap decision: “I want to know more…NOW!” So I proceeded through to the atrocity exhibition and devoured the entire story with all the ravenous relish of a news-starved hyena.
Thinking about it now, I feel a pang of remorse for having felt such a draw to the story. I mean, why do I feel so compelled to find out more about one of the most loathsome characters to enter the public sphere in decades? Is it because people are generally excited and intrigued by things they cannot fully understand? I certainly cannot understand the sort of man who does what he did, and I fully condemn his actions, yet I could not halt my mouse icon’s race towards the headline.
I for one couldn’t care less if someone like Alan Titchmarsh declares that he was ‘born to maintain foliage’ but yet I do care if Joseph Fritzl feels he was born to carry out his defining act. Why? Surely a humanitarian like myself should be utterly repelled by the thought of gaining an insight into the mind of such a man.
My point is not that I’m desperately preoccupied with learning of grisly deeds or anything, its that people in general are. Why else would these types capture the public’s imagination so much? They are the real-world archetypal villains that provide our everyday lives with balance, they remind us that we are normal, which is why we lap information about them up so readily. If this is not true, why does Mein Kampf continually sell over 20 000 copies in English each year?
In the battle between good and evil fought out on the shop shelves of the world there is an obvious winner.
Evil sells.
