From our earliest childhood we are confronted by the epic struggle between the forces of good and evil. We see it in literature, in sports, on stage and screen. It is a subject with apparently endless possibilities. This conflict between two opposing forces is frequently illustrated through fictitious characters who personify those forces and who engage in frequent battles for supremacy. Countless myths and stories are told of heroes vs villains, evil witches and fairy God-mothers, the cowboy in the white hat vs. the one with a black hat. For every Luke Skywalker there must be a Darth Vader, Batman has the Joker and the Dodgers have the Giants (sorry, bias exposed!). The object lesson is clear. These stories teach us to seek the good. Likewise we learn to shun the bad.
But what is so very clear and simple in a play, motion picture or novel, is almost never as clear in real life. But that doesn’t keep us from trying to disregard the complex in favor of the simple. We want to blame someone for their evil deeds and we want the hero to show up just in the nick of time and save us just like in some old serial Western.
