I really used to like Star Trek the Next Generation. Still do. Gene Roddenberry built a world where strife had been removed. People didn’t struggle for money, food, or power. There was no jealousy or greed. Yet, every episode dealt with some elements of these. Why? Because drama is conflict, and conflict is human nature.
Human beings come with great virtues and great flaws. Lately, it has become fashionable to suggest that the flaws only apply to certain groups or certain times. But history teaches that human nature transcends time, space, race, and ethnicity. While it is true that North America had slavery, so did Islamic Africa, Incan South America, and (to an extent) Eastern Europe. Racism was present in KKK members, Indian brahmans, Nazi stormtroopers, and soldiers of the Japanese empire. The Boers persecuted the Zulu just as the Zulu viciously conquered their neighbors. Cortez brutally conquered Mexico, just as the Aztecs did centuries before. Copious blood gets spilled today on the streets of Odessa and those of Chicago. Whatever the time or society, there are always those greedy for power, money, or revenge. Always some person or group thinks they know the way and that all others should be forced to follow. That was and is the dark side of human nature.
All this is grist for the writer’s mill. We can try and write around it, pretend racism, greed, violence, lust, and thirst for power no longer exist, or only exist in certain groups or peoples. But if we do, we risk losing the basic truthfulness that is at the heart of good writing.
Readers are human (most of them anyway 😊). As human beings, they are drawn to strong emotions such as violence and unbridled passion. Characters like James Bond, Jack Reacher, and Rambo are popular because they are violent men of action. Christian Grey has appeal because of his carnal appetites. Serial killers like Hannibal Lecter are fascinating because they tap into that dark half of human nature. To paraphrase Stephen King, writers must let that dark-half beast out of the cage. If not, the work itself will be constrained and unauthentic.
As writers, we mustn’t censor ourselves. We mustn’t become so obsessed with not offending that we create watered-down, unrealistic characters and events. We mustn’t rewrite history to fit modern sensibilities. We mustn’t build bland worlds devoid of human frailty and human greatness. We mustn’t demonize one group in order to idolize another. We need to show the whole of human character, warts and all. To do so should not be thought of as offensive, crude, or unfeeling. It is simply truthful writing. For, although it may be fiction, it must maintain universal truth at its core. And what could be truer or more universal than human nature.
