Nazis, scoundrels and the Real Pirates of the Caribbean

This morning I watched a History Channel special on pirates. I didn't catch the title of the show, but if I was it's creator I would have called it The Real Pirates of the Caribbean. I was just looking for some filler TV to view while eating breakfast, but ended up watching the rest of the show...nearly two hours worth. And the attention-grabbing documentary set my mind to working on an endlessly perplexing question: Why are we so fascinated by despicable people?

Pirates, mobsters, serial killers, drug pushers, Nazis...they've all gotten more than their fair share of representation in the media. And some of our best directors, actors and authors have made careers out of depicting notorious individuals. The films of Martin Scorsese most readily come to mind.

Again, I ask "why?"

Are scoundrels more interesting than do-gooders? In many cases, yes. That would explain why we've seen more films featuring Batman than Superman...Batman is a vigilante whereas Superman is a "boy scout".

Let's analyze our psyches for a moment. In my estimation, the reason everyone knows of Al Capone and few are aware that Elliot Ness brought him down is because the vast majority of us are wannabe villains. I know...I know...we don't want to think of ourselves that way. But let's look at the facts. We love Billy the Kid though he had all of the qualities we supposedly despise: irresponsible, quick-tempered, violent, amoral, prejudiced. When you think of it, most...if not all...of our cherished rogues were the kind of people we'd never want to meet in real life. Nevertheless, we'll readily give them hours of our valuable time...just as I gave my precious minutes to the likes of Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, Anne Bonny and Black Bart.

I must admit that part of me imagined being in their shoes (or peg-legs), firing cutlasses, raiding ships, drinking rum, stealing booty, killing soldiers and governors. If I was to do those things in real life, my family would disown me and probably banish my name from our genealogy. But people who didn't know me would likely be endlessly fascinated by me. They'd write books about me and make movies. I'd be a celebrity!  

So there it is...we're fascinated by scoundrels because we secretly envy them. Something in our dark nature wishes we could be as heartless and daring as them.

But in the pantheon of enviable villains, the Nazis fall into a class all their own. I've yet to meet anyone who says they admire Hitler and his goosestepping minions, or that they'd like to emulate them (of course Neo-Nazis, skinheads and former presidents of Iran would disagree...but I haven't met them). We'll watch movies and shows about Nazis, though, and read about them. Nazi-related media is big business.

The Nazis, it seems, are our perfect illustration. We're endlessly fascinated by them, but would never want to be them. And we despise them down to our core. I think the reason for this weird dichotomy is proximity. Whereas pirates of the Blackbeard or Jack Sparrow variety were three hundred years ago, the terror caused by the Nazis is recent and affected many of our families personally. That's why we have pirate parades and see kids dressed as pirates for Halloween, but we don't have Nazi celebrations or see Nazis marching around on All Hallows Eve threatening a trick of they don't get a treat.

I just hope the people three hundred years from now won't celebrate Nazis the way we celebrate pirates. That would be a most disturbing commentary on humanity.