Snailish old Izzie is always six months behind the curve when it comes to replying to memes and quizzes

There are so many fascinating books and reading memes out there but I could not resist the one about mythical creatures and spirit animals

( The Serpent's tale )

This snailish serpent finally gets around to answering the last of the Cat's Questionses

3. Why the bad guys are more interesting than the good ones?

The quote that immediately comes to mind is an old Izzie favorite
"There is no good and evil. There is only power and those too weak to seek it"

Most folks are brought up to fit into society, to be nice and to think of others etc. Looking out for Number One is considered rather unacceptable
There's good reasons for this training. Life would be rather nasty short and brutish if everyone acted out of pure unadulterated self interest. Most things worth achieving require co-operation and delayed gratification
But as well as these carrots, there's also sticks for those who do not play by the rules and of course those sorts do best when most folks are playing nice. There's just so many more opportunities for free rides.

But there are some who don't give a damn about what most folks think. Rules are for fools. And for those who follow the rules out of fear, there must lurk a secret desire to slink about in an invisibility cloak and do all that stuff that they do not do simply from fear of getting caught and punished
So while some people play nice because they are basically good, can empathise with others and are able to imagine how awful it would be if everyone just indulged their dark side with no regard to consquences, most people are nice simply because they are afraid of being punished for being nasty. And those are the ones who most likely find the dark side most intriguing indeed

But while megalomaniacs, psychopaths and control freaks are fascinating in fantasy or at a distance, they are no fun at all in real life, especially if one of them is in a position of power over you. If it is not actually a matter of life and death (unless you are a slave, it is possible to leave most jobs - or a young child - it is possible to leave one's family) which is most scary and terrifying indeed, it can just be plain old downright draining and emotionally exhausting to be under the influence of such a creature. And baddies often seem to have the ability to make their prey believe that there is no other alternative or any way out and that it is really all their fault. All they have to do is just try harder to be good and everything will be OK. Maybe the baddies really do see themselves as victims rather than perpetrators or maybe it is just another item in the arsenal for maintaining control and inducing guilt trips in their victims

At least in fantasy - no matter what sort of psychopathic sadistic control freak you can conjure from the deepest darkest doomiest dungeons of the mind - the fact is that the one who does the imagining is still really in control. That is what makes all the difference

PS Not all evil is interesting. Some of it is just plain sick Better send Catman to the rescue
Now we know where Dearest Dolores gets the decor for her dungeon

Not very often that Izzie posts quizzies but this one was more tempting than usual. It happens very often that Izzie wants to tick the box marked 'none of the above' which is invariably never ever there. So a quiz with questionses that have us thinking "Do we have to pick just ONE?" is just so so unusual - especially when getting fits of the giggles at almost every question. We wants ALL those bumper stickers
Needless to say - it would be only in the USA that Izzie could have a 'Liberal' Identity. Here in Oz - never ever!





Oh. This just got a whole lot more fun. Followed the linkies and looks like these folks are playing to the gallery with a book and quiz aimed for the folks on the other side of the fence
So in the interest of fairness (the tweeking the time turner question is especially amusing - torn between the video camera and the moon landing flag - but a McDonald's flag would be most fun of all




Most amusing and reasonably accurate since this serpent's political leanings are something along the lines of libertarianism with a leaning to the left and a seriously cynical mistrust of big government
Like Nietzsche, poor old Adam Smith gets such a bad press.