"Villains are not born. They get made." What is your take on this? Do you know anyone like this?

Question

BCA6010 · Accepted Answer

That's an adaptation of the phrase, "heroes are not born, they're made," which in either case is highlighting the idea that it takes conscious action and influence through experience to shape someone's morals (though in the heros' case it's usually a motivational statement posted in gyms or recruiting offices).

It's a very broad argument to make that pretty much everyone who isn't a diehard predeterminationist of some fashion would generally agree with, but my opinion is that it's a worthless statement to make in order to sound motivational or wise at a very basic level.

A better phrase to summarize real-world villainy is "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." That's because nobody wakes up in the morning and cackles about doing evil. Terrorists, tyrants, con artists, murderers, thieves, rapists, etc have all justified in their minds that whatever they do is for the greater good, or some level of justifiable benefit to make the effort worthwhile, and more often than not, they sincerely believe that whoever opposes them is the real evil. "Villains are not born, they get made" would be more applicable to asking how someone villainous got to be that way, and the answer is almost always a combination of past injustice and the power to act, which can also inversely be a catalyst for doing good.

ChillaxingLove · Accepted Answer

They are made. Hitler was severely beaten by his father as a child with objects, much of his ways came from his strong hatred for his father.

Ted Bundy was raped by his grandfather as a child and exposed to a variety of abuse as a toddler.

Aaron Kosminski aka Jack the Ripper grew up in territory annexed by Russia around the 1870. During 1880-1881 there was antisemitism against Jews. The death of Russian ruler Alexander ii threw the country into chaos. And Open brutal violence against Jews such as rape murder and looting began he grew up in this chaos until age 17-18. Around age 17-18 him and his family moved.

My theory is everyone is capable of all these horrific things and there is a tolerance level or a mental threshold by which we are mentally capable of restraining ourselves from such crazy actions. These thresholds are trained and given to us by how we are brought up through our parents. Parents are extremely important in creating these mental thresholds which dictate what we are willing and not willing to do in any given situation.

Justneedtokno · Accepted Answer

I feel like sometimes it’s initially there in the beginning in life nurture is, it is not for the better for the worse

menina · Accepted Answer

I don't think it's always true. Some people are born evil. And I know many people like that.

SnowedIn · Answer

I think this is true. I don't know anyone like that.

Andres77 · Answer

Completely agree. everyone has a choice

inhua · Answer

nobody is born evil. people who turn evil had evil people do evil things to them and in turn it creates a never-ending cycle of evil.

Agape93 · Answer

In my experience its quite true. Life has a good track record of beating kindness out of people.

NathanDavis · Answer

all villains have to be born first... then they become

WhitneySnow · Answer

Not sure. Maybe.

willowd03 · Answer

This reads like a variation on the nature vs nurture debate.

worldscolide · Answer

I'd say its very true.

Jamie05rhs · Answer

It's certainly true in some cases.

Exterminatore · Answer

I think it’s both.

"Villains are not born. They get made." What is your take on this? Do you know anyone like this?

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