{"id":2111,"date":"2015-08-11T06:25:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T14:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=2111"},"modified":"2015-08-11T06:25:36","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T14:25:36","slug":"the-minions-of-mild-villainy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=2111","title":{"rendered":"The Minions of Mild Villainy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reminded of this archetype also in this summer\u2019s Computer-Graphic Cartoon movie, Minions<\/a>.  I liked the theme that simple minded folks (the cute lil\u2019 Minions) happen to love the energy put out by someone who exhibits a strong sense of triumphant malevolence. A good villain is appealing in a weird way. In my childhood, there was \u201cDishonest John<\/a>,\u201d a wicked hand-puppet in the \u201cTime for Beanie\u201d television series. There were melodrama caricatures of villainy, which I elaborated as \u201cSnidely Whiplash\u201d\u2014who happens to be half-sublimated as the \u201cEditor of the professional journal, \u201cThe Journal of Punitive Psychiatry.\u201d (Motto: I\u2019ll give you what to cry for.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Staying with the theme of childhood villains, there was Doctor Sivana<\/a>, the nemesis of Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel never killed him. He sealed him, as I remember at the end of one comic book, in a hermetic structure buried up to his neck in concrete under a dome at the bottom of the sea! Wouldn\u2019t you know it? Doctor Sivana managed to somehow escape and made trouble in if not the next issue, a few issues later. He\u2019s Baaaaack! <\/p>\n

I also had a kind of grudging affection for the Ming the Merciless<\/a> , Emperor of the planet Mongo and nemesis of the hero Flash Gordon. This precursor to Hitler-style tyrant had an appeal to a sickly kid: Power! For a kid, there was also the lure of freedom from conscience. But in the 40s there were certain no-nos. \u201cBring me the Earth-woman,\u201d Ming would command. \u201cI\u2019m going to make her marry me.\u201d There was a hidden morality there: No hanky-panky outside of marriage in the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n

Mostly I\u2019m nice with a pretty hefty conscience; but my Shadow\u2014that part of the larger self Jung suggested included all the dis-owned parts. Ah, yes… Nyah ha ha. <\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the Minions, it was fun to see a group of bumbling helpers of bad guys. They weren\u2019t malicious in themselves\u2014they weren\u2019t smart enough\u2014but they enjoyed that energy. I\u2019m reminded of the bacteria that feed on the unfinished products of decay or the poop of slightly more complex animals in the \u201cchain of decay.\u201d Everything seems to get used in life. Ah, but back to the theme of gentle, humorous villainy, which leads right into Halloween, All Hallows Even, when the goblin\u2019s \u2018ll get you if you don\u2019t watch out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reminded of this archetype also in this summer\u2019s Computer-Graphic Cartoon movie, Minions.  I liked the theme that simple minded folks (the cute lil\u2019 Minions) happen to love the energy put out by someone who exhibits a strong sense of triumphant malevolence. A good villain is appealing in a weird way. In my childhood, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiographical","category-foolin","category-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2112,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2111\/revisions\/2112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}