Are humans hard-wired to want heroes and villains?

[raccoon]

People love to look for somebody to blame things on, on the personal and the macro level.

And many people want a Fuehrer, I mean a leader, to tell them what to do.


(Times are hard. This is a copycat from my own thread on GD.)

[RadiationTherapy]

1. A fuhrer or a savior...both are much easier than working out our differences.

Think about it: Everyone who doesn't worship a certain set of laws is eliminated; all that is left are people who agree with one another. It is the foundation of most religions and political zealots. It is just laziness and fear.

[alarimer]

2. I think so, at least most people.

I finally figured out what has bothered me most about "Obamamania" and it wasn't Obama himself. I mean, I voted for Kerry and Gore who are not exactly lefties either. No, what bothers me most about politics, all politics, is the tendency for people on both sides to go absolutely ga-ga over "their" guy (or woman, as the case may be). It is emotional and unreasoning and that is what bothers me most. And the same things happens every single time, although it's worse now because we need change so much after the last 8 years. I don't really blame people in the least for looking for a savior this time. It just happened to be Obama but it might have been someone else.

But I have never been a rah-rah sort of person. In fact I am deeply suspicious of it, almost to the point of scorning the object of the rah-rah for no other reason whatsoever. My unfortunate tendency to be the "Contrary Little Quail" has carried over into adulthood. I often am contrary just to be contrary, not for any other reason. But I think most people are not that way. Some people really need a hero. So of course they need a villain too. We sure have had more than our share of villains over the last 8 years.

[SidneyCarton]

3. You sure this isn't just a part of western civ?

We seem to have a need for a Messiah/Adversary pretty hard wired into our society. Is it the same in the East?