Dualism: The Sequel

Last week we talked about the tendency of popular story-telling to engender dualistic thinking either directly, within the story, or indirectly, by making it look like nothing cool happens without evil people around mixing it up.

But, dualism isn't true, and its effect (whether it’s in a story, or in the mind of the reader) is to make stories about good and evil much less awesome. To illustrate this, let’s talk about Darth Vader.

Shooting lightning and getting pissed-off are strictly forbidden by The Force...
or, half of it anyway. 

We have a perfect example of dualism in The Force. A long time ago, a galaxy far, far away was held together by an invisible,

Dualism

You can’t have a hero without a villain. You can’t have a story without conflict. Without bad guys, the good guys are just a bunch of guys.

Now, hold on a second. Did that last assertion seem like a leap? Is it the same to say that there’s no hero without a villain, and to say that there are no good guys without bad guys?

Thinking there is no good without evil -- that to be a good guy you need a bad guy -- is called dualism (by people with a tendency to name these things), and it is a prevalent concept in pop-culture. Sometimes this is because it has been actively embraced by the makers of pop-cultural artifacts (such as “alignment” in Dungeons and Dragons, or the light and dark sides of the Force). But, there is also a tendency toward this way of thinking which is engendered by the very structure of the stories themselves.

Can't be a hero without a villain?
Yeah, can't have a pain in the ass without something to give it to you.

Ever since I started wanting to