Protect My Own

[Villain - II]

The villain is an archetype with consistent characteristics, motivations, and orientation. (See Monday’s reflection for a description of this.)

Selfishness in general is not nuanced enough to get at one of the fundamental characteristics of the villain. Even a hero is selfish, if by selfish, we mean acting, on any level, in the interest of oneself. Any act of charity by definition is selfish, if for no other reason than the hero believes it is the right thing to do.

This is not the kind of selfish that is embodied by the villain. The villain lives in his own world whereby selfishness is not something to be vetted, reluctantly accepted, or minimized; rather, selfishness is a virtue. Whatever is the villain’s must be protected at all costs because it is its own type of inverted heroism.

In this type of selfish world everything else, everything beyond, everything outside of mine is a threat and must be feared and avoided or eliminated. This is why selfishness as a virtue is always one step from paranoia.

“Protect my own at all costs” is a relative to this way of seeing the world.
It never leads to peace.

I'm pretty sure this isn't what Jesus meant when he talked about the other cheek, the shirt and coat, and the extra mile (Matthew 5:39-42).