Every good story needs a hero and every hero needs a good evil protagonist-- the evil character in the story. So, what makes a good evil character. There are some variants, but for most stories there are some common characteristics...

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Every good story needs a hero and every hero needs a good evil protagonist-- the evil character in the story. So, what makes a good evil character.

There are some variants, but for most stories there are some common characteristics, some of which overlap.

Desire for wealth and or power.

Driven by money and power.

Exploitive, extractive, predatory.

Authoritarian, dominating.

Lack of empathy and compassion.

Not caring about other people, groups, the environment, culture, history-- unless there's money or power in it.

Cruel, even sadistic.

Duplicitous, lying, scheming.

Cool under pressure or when engaging in lying or committing crimes.

The best evil characters, the strongest antagonists are not purely evil. They are complex individuals who offer a bit of good with their evil. They might show a kindness here or there. It may be manipulative or for show, but maybe not. They may fight with the good guys for one cause while plotting against the hero or the cause of the hero. These complex villains provide a great challenge to the hero-- not only directly, but through the deceptions this complex character machinates to influence and sabotage the relationship of the hero to his or her allies.

Does this sound familiar?

Of course, the characteristics of villains are the characteristics of Psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists. They are the characteristics of corporatists and bankers who predatorily exploit people and communities, even whole nations, whole ecosystems.

And the characteristics of complex antagonists are the characteristics of lesser-of-two-evils candidates. They are the characteristics of church leaders and political party leaders.

There are other evil fictional characters who are pure psychopaths, like Hannibal Lecter and Voldemort. Maybe they're a different story, maybe not.

Who needs fiction?

Just sayin'.

Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

Rob Kall Wikipedia Page

Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel

Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel

Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.

Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.

To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.

For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.

Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..

To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.

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His quotes are here

Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.

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