Usually, when one thinks of sadism, a picture of some type of psychopathic
serial killer or medieval torturer comes to mind. However, sadism or at least
sadistic thoughts are a lot more common than people might think. Who is the
last villain you can remember in real life or in a fictional setting? Specifically, who
is the last individual you thought was a genuine villain because you found
their behaviour and actions reprehensible? I will hazard a guess that you didn’t
feel guilty when something bad happened to them. You likely didn’t feel
bad if they experienced violence or even death. In fact, you probably felt a
rush of excitement and a relief, which is why even something as seemingly
disturbing as sadism can be very common.
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To be clear there is a big difference between someone being directly violent
towards another person and taking pleasure in that, versus a second-hand
experience, but it is fair to say that almost everyone has been a sadist at least
with their own thoughts. A natural question arises … does that mean everyone
has some evil in them or does it mean ‘sadism’ isn’t always a bad thing? The
answer is the latter because not all sadism is created equal. There is a
fundamental difference between pain and death caused to ‘innocent individuals’
versus those that have made immoral decisions. That’s why a ‘classic sadist’ is
evil because they derive pleasure from causing pain regardless of who it is too
whereas most people only derive satisfaction from punishments to people they
feel are evil. And one can argue this has a deeper and morally justified meaning.
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As most cultures have core morals/principles and those that violate them have
‘given up’ some of their natural human rights, it makes sense that those who
desire a stability and maintenance of the moral fibre of the culture will derive
pleasure from justice being carried out. That’s why a general form of sadism is
so wide spread. Popular movies and stories are filled with villains who early on
‘give up’ their natural human rights by the immoral actions they choose to make
and everyone in the theater is satisfied and relieved when they are punished or
die violently at the end. Movies and stories often can reaffirm the core values of
a culture and the ‘moral sadism’ involved in upholding justice.
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Whether the core moral principles of a culture would be universally agreed on by
all humans is a different and complicated discussion and therefore who is ‘evil’
can have some subjectivity attached to it. The key point is that sadism can
come from a place of morality as opposed to simply being a dark animalistic
impulse. Disturbingly, historical figures have taken advantage of this ‘moral
sadism’ by using propaganda and false claims to dehumanize other groups
which is how many atrocities have been caused. Therefore, one must be very
careful with who they are willing to deem as evil and make sure they have
strong evidence before their ‘moral sadism’ leads to disturbing outcomes.