One of the founding ideas that I have in my head about people is a line I read in a Facebook post a couple of years ago. “Nobody realizes that they are side characters in someone else’s story. ” I went a step further, and coined ‘Everyone is the hero of their own story.’
With that thought in mind, it is a billion times easier to go forth into the world and do what I need to do. Horrible things might happen to me, or to the people around me, but it will turn out okay- because we are the heroes of our own stories.
I think that this is an important nugget of wisdom for literally everyone- no matter what happens, despite all of the darkness around you or those you know, everyone will turn out okay.
There is a dark side to this. A major group that has gone down in history as an example of true evil were the Nazis during World War 2. According to the world at large at the time, and some people even decades after, each and every single person who followed the Nazis were evil. And I’ll be the first to admit that many of them were. However, many people simply were following orders. Some people didn’t feel responsible for their actions- ‘I’m not responsible for killing those people. My commander is, because they told me to.’ You can read about Nazi’s saying this during the Nuremberg Trials here.
Is that a gut wrenching thought? Absolutely. Is it an important thought? Absolutely. Many of the greatest villains in fiction and history have followed a similar pattern- they thought what they were doing was right. Wilson Fisk of Marvel Comics became a crime boss because he thought he could limit crime. He knew that crime was still going to happen, but if he controlled all of it, he could limit the casualties. Napoleon Bonaparte went on his crusade because he thought that the French would benefit from it.
In the end, it doesn’t matter who you are- good or bad, rich or poor, man or woman or neither, everyone thinks that what they are doing is the right thing to do.
Blog of Heroes 