I just finished reading George Orwell’s 1984 (and just finished adding it to my list of favorite books; if you haven’t read it, you really should), and I was thinking about the scene in it where Winston has been captured by the Thought Police, and O’Brian is replaying to him the tape where he agrees to lie, murder, throw acid in the face of a child, etc., in order to facilitate the overthrow of the party. So, who is in the right here? Is the party, who may emotionally suppress people, keep them at the edge of starvation, etc., but who do not actually murder people, really the worse group? Or are Winston and Julia, who agree to commit heinous crimes for an organization which, to their knowledge, may never have even a chance of succeeding, the true monsters here? What makes for a “villain” – is it a person willing to defend life at all cost, even when that means imperiling future life and happiness – or a person with whom we can identify, who is fighting against something bigger than themself.
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