Beyond the Villainous Archetype: Dick Cheney and others

[armyowalgreens]

It's become something of a national pass time to accuse Dick Cheney and his band of cronies of being comic book and cinema villains.

How many of us have thought "Wow, Dick Cheney is like a real life Darth Vader".


I can understand the humor in such a comparison. Yet, why do we elevate these men and women to such fiction? Is it possible that we are mistakenly downplaying the significance of their actions?

Imaginary villains almost all follow the same mold. They use to be "good guys" but a major event occurred in their life that caused them to "turn to the dark side". It allows the audience to dislike the villain, while still feeling a bit sympathetic toward their miserable existence.

I don't feel sympathetic when I look at Dick Cheney. Unadulterated disgust is the only emotion that bubbles up into my brain whenever I hear of him. No super villain could ever make me feel that way.

The bottom line is these war criminals are not villains. That is being unkind to The Joker and The Green Goblin.

In reality, Dick Cheney is not a tormented soul enslaved by his twisted mind. He is NOT your father.

He is a perfectly sane man that has led a very successful career funding death, terrorizing a nation, doing despicable things for his own selfish reasons and lying to get away with it.

He is a man in the real world just like anyone of us. And for that reason it makes his actions that much more despicable. Because, when the adventure is over, you can turn the movie off or close the book.

We cannot simply shut off the television and be comforted that the destruction Dick and his friends brought was a fairy tale.


Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, Donald Rumsfeld, etc. These are not characters from a comic. They are the genuine article.

[Bucky]

1. Nit pick: Dick Cheney isn't a tortured soul.... *yet*

I agree that there's a certain kneejerk quality to the criticism of Cheney round these parts. Cheney is bad and therefor anything that is bad can be ascribed to him. This is how we get the cartoonish notion that he's some sort of Lex Luthor style master mind, pulling strings behind every curtain, a sort of shadow Karl Rove. As you say, he's a flawed man. Among his flaws were (1) a neurotic misjudgment about how to protect the country (with all due apologies to the MIHOP idiots--had he actually planned 9-11 I'm sure he'd make a mess of that too) and (2) a sadly casual corruption when it came to greasing his corporate buddies at Enron, Halliburton, Dow Chemical, and AIG.

But I do think he's tortured. Despite being incompetent, he's an intelligent man. The knuckleheaded rationalizations he makes trying to justify his failed antiterror and war policies show, I think, a man twisting his mind to find a self justification for his failures. He's a seemingly loving father, yet keeps a toe in the fundamentalist camp that oppresses his daughter. He probably feels like he saved the country (by betraying our values) and must feel a great deal of scorn toward the country club set who used him and now treat him like an embarrassment... or a punchline. I mean, how can anyone play second fiddle to Dubya for eight years and not feel bitter toward an unjust world?

As a history teacher, I don't think it's enough to simply denounce the bad actors in the world--I think we need to understand them, too. Cheney is a riddle wrapped in a man-sized titanium safe. I'm not sure I entirely have a bead on the old angler, but he's something other than pure evil. Any simple explanation of him is going to miss those critical contradictions.

[armyowalgreens]

3. I'm extremely doubtful that Cheney is all that dynamic...

He has given no hint of being a complicated person. His actions are pretty straightforward.

But I could be wrong.

[opihimoimoi]

2. War Criminals,,,,,so dumb as to out our own spy....etc....a full investigation is needed