Playing such a character, I didn't want to say the lines, I didn't want to be connected to this moral vacuum that seems to be the man himself. He was….an absolutely ghastly human being. There is something purely evil about him that is absolutely repellent and I'll be very happy not to wear his uniform or play him ever again.

Kenneth Branagh on playing Reinhard Heydrich in Conspiracy, from an interview published on 5 April 2001

The reader can sympathise with actor Kenneth Branagh: it's his job to get a handle on the personalities he plays. He found it nearly impossible to imagine himself ever getting into a mental space where he could commit mass murder. I believe him. But when we write, we often have to describe evil. How do we deal with this?

And now, I'm going to say something shocking: there is no such thing as 'evil'. Instead, there are terrible things human beings do. There is no such thing as an 'evil' human being. There are only human beings who have done terrible things.

As Seamus Heaney wrote:

Human beings suffer.

They torture one another.

They get hurt and get hard.

'The Cure at Troy'

Notice what I didn't say. I didn't say that these things were 'understandable'. Or excusable. Or 'not that bad'. The Holocaust was every bit as bad as you think it was, and more. So was Rwanda. So were the crimes against people that happened last night all over the world. But the perpetrators of these crimes were not, and are not, extraordinarily evil. They aren't outside the realm of human behaviour.

You don't get to let the human species off the hook like that.

Now, watch this testimony at a US Senate confirmation hearing. The speaker was interrogated about his behaviour as a teenager. Specifically, he was accused of sexually assaulting another student while very drunk. Watch this person's body language. Listen to his choice of words. Don't worry about whether he did what they said or not: that's for others to decide. As a writer, see what you can discover about his attitude toward his time in high school.

Why does anybody care what Brett Kavanaugh did in high school? Well, a therapist named Dr Ford does, because she says he assaulted her. She says that trauma is etched into her memory. The Senate cares what Kavanaugh did or didn't do, because the office of Supreme Court Justice is a very serious responsibility, and the appointment is for life. We should care, because watching this man emote on television is an opportunity to look at the role of memory in conscience.

Dr Ford says her high school years caused her trauma. Many of us can relate. Other teenagers did not always behave well. Indications – reports by other alumni, evidence from the school's yearbook – lead us to believe that this particular school, which served the children of rich elites, was what some people call a 'party school'. Meaning that it would not be at all surprising to find out that the seniors drank until they puked, bullied others, broke the law, and quite possibly, committed sexual assault. Whether this particular incident happened or not is irrelevant to our discussion here: that sort of thing happened. The perpetrators often went on to attend prestigious universities and occupy public office. And they remembered their high school days as 'glory days'. They looked back on this time with fondness. They had a good time.

Realise this, too: for this particular group of people, behaving in this way was normal. All their friends did it. They applauded each other's drunken binges. They praised reports of sexual adventures. In their yearbook, they joked about these things using the latest slang. They expressed camaraderie by labelling themselves 'Renata alumni'. Renata was a girl in their school. They spread the rumour that she liked sex and 'did it' with the football team. The woman they were talking about has only now found out about this. Unfortunately, there's not much she can do about it – although, come to think of it, don't you feel a revenge horror screenplay coming on right about now?

Now take a look at this home movie footage. Notice how much fun these soldiers are having. They aren't doing anything wrong. They're only occupying France. Boy, those were the good old days. Don't you remember how drunk Fritz got the night after the Führer's visit? What about the time we caught those two Frenchmen trying to sneak into town after curfew? Great times, eh?

These two stories have something in common. No, not the nature of the wrongdoing, although bullying is bullying, and if you think the difference between beating up other kids for their lunch money and invading Poland is not one of degree, see me after class. What these stories have in common is the sense of belonging that motivates the perpetrators of wrong actions. You see, if everybody else is doing it, it can't be bad, right? And if doing it (whatever it is) marks you as a member of a chosen elite, then it really can't be bad. Look, the SS has this cool uniform. My fraternity has a neat pin, and a secret handshake, and my frat brothers control half the Senate. But Mom, all the other guys are going to the KKK meeting. They're tapping a keg! Can't you be nice and sew me a sheet?

See what I mean?

Evil is really terrible human behaviour. It's based on greed, and fear, and hostility, and all the other bad human traits. It really gets started when it reaches critical mass: when enough people in one place decide the terrible behaviour is normal. And when they give it a uniform, or a club pin, or the key to the executive washroom, then we're really in trouble.

Keep this in mind when you write. Don't expect the villains to go 'mwahaha'. Unless that's the secret password for the latest rally.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

22.10.18 Front Page

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