The "Mad Scientist" character.

H

Huwy

Secular Humanist
Registered Senior Member
In many fictional cartoons, movies, etc. we see characters depicted as "mad/evil Scientists", or "evil geniuses" (who use a lot of science to carry out their evil plans).

How many real examples in history can we think of of real mad scientists/evil scientists?

Ok the first ones I can think of are some of the Nazi scientists, who carried out horrible atrocities in the name of science.

Any others?
Why so many "mad scientist" characters? Have there been that many in history?

And secondly, can anyone think of any characters in fiction of the "mad religious extremist"?? For example, the religious extremist (whether it be the muslim terrorist, the christian crusader (rapture/end times prophecy), the jewish extremist) who believes that bombing innocent people is absolutely necessary in order to gain/regain power?

e.g.
Jerry Falwell
Osama Bin Laden
Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle (know about these guys, folks?)

Can anyone think of any "religious extremist" characters like these in fiction?
 
TV these days has quite a share of religious extremists.
Communist baddies were the rule for years.
I am pretty sure Muslim baddies have been hijackers in many films and enemies of a variety of hollywood macho men: Chuck Norris, S. Stallone, Arnold. In fact I know this has happened because I can remember wondering many times how it felt for these obviously arab men - obvious since they were speaking arabic - to know the only roles they were likely to get in films was as terrorist.
When's the last time anyone every saw a movie where the plot hinged on an Muslim shopkeeper - good guy or bad guy?

Christian loonies are also in a lot of film though getting more specific I can'ts eem to do today. I am quite sure I have see many films with christian cults, or christian parents who abuse their children, or christians who behave rather satanically.

As far as mad scientists the guys who monitered afro-american men who had syphilis without informing them (for decades), that's nutty and evil.
Also the psychiatrists who took the uteruses out of uppity women and all the wild abuses of psychosurgery qualify. (not that they ran around laughing sinisterly, but then that is the problem with most mad scientists: lack of affect.)
I think some of the guys who built the A bomb were mad, because a numbe of them thought therre was a decent chance (5, 15, I can't remember) that the chain reaction might spread to non-radioactive matter and destroy the world.

Engineers have at the very least gone along with and help hide, justify, create absolutely deadly industrial accidents and pollution: Bhopal, ciggarretes, all sorts of sytematic toxic spilling. Any scientists associated with Rocky Flats facility in Colorado qualifies in my book. They found visible chunks of plutonium in the ventilation. Like stuff you could heft in your hand.

Many governments have scientists who have aided torturers, developed torture devices and drugs adn participated directly in the torture.

Any scientists still developing mines is participating in evil. These result in civilian deaths and maiming decades after conflicts. Children are very common victims.

Adn I am sure there is quite a bit more.

I don't think scientists are unfairly treated here. I think they as a community can do with reminders that simply because somethign can be done does not mean it should be. And one does bear some responsibility for how the people you are working for use your ideas. The Movie the Insider shows what one honorable scientist suffered for not going along with evil.
 
Huwy said:
In many fictional cartoons, movies, etc. we see characters depicted as "mad/evil Scientists", or "evil geniuses" (who use a lot of science to carry out their evil plans).

How many real examples in history can we think of of real mad scientists/evil scientists?

Ok the first ones I can think of are some of the Nazi scientists, who carried out horrible atrocities in the name of science.

Any others?
Why so many "mad scientist" characters? Have there been that many in history?
Click to expand...
I think the mad scientist character springs from the circumstance that science so often prods, pokes and pushes at the edge of human understanding of the way things work. It's fields of endeavor often involve knowledge which can seem incomprehensible to the average person, jargon which sounds as though some sort of magician's cant, procedures/techniques which can look like "meddling with the natural order of things" (which they are in some cases, but that includes everything from curing diseases to making nerve agents.)

Seems the presumption in the portrayals of a "mad scientist" is that delving into things "better left alone" and finding out just enough to cause some sort of trouble - which these guys usually do - prompts the character in question to feel that they are somehow on par with God, and hence feel justified in "playing God".


And secondly, can anyone think of any characters in fiction of the "mad religious extremist"?? For example, the religious extremist (whether it be the muslim terrorist, the christian crusader (rapture/end times prophecy), the jewish extremist) who believes that bombing innocent people is absolutely necessary in order to gain/regain power?

e.g.
Jerry Falwell
Osama Bin Laden
Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle (know about these guys, folks?)

Can anyone think of any "religious extremist" characters like these in fiction?
Click to expand...

There was the "evil preacher" from the Poltergeist films a number of years back. In the sequels the hauntings had their origins in the death en masse of a freaky "fundamentalist" cult led by a guy who thought the world was about to end, and led his followers to an underground "sanctuary" where they - rather than the world - met their end.

In the Robert Heinlein novella If This Goes On, America is governed by a theocracy headed by a leader known as The Prophet - an office created by the "First Prophet" a preacher turned President by the name of Nehemiah Scudder.
Some plot highlights from an Amazon.com review:
There are virgins to "serve" the First Prophet, and there are "Angels of the Lord" (such as protagonist John Lyle) charged to protect his safety. Pariahs are frequently attacked and repressed by the government to further its dictatorial control, and history has been essentially deleted and replaced by a new version of America's story drilled into the heads of all youngsters. For those who dare resist, a modern Inquisition exists to punish and torture them-there is no bigger fear than of being subjected to The Question.

There's good old Cardinal Richelieu, from Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers - and also something of a scheming S.O.B. in real life.
 
Why so many "mad scientist" characters?

-maybe a general concept of thinking that if one was smart enough to get away with something they would do it.
 
I think this is mostly based on Nicola Tesla(esp later years :().

Often the mad scientist has tesla coils operating in his lab.
 
Grantywanty said:
When's the last time anyone every saw a movie where the plot hinged on an Muslim shopkeeper - good guy or bad guy?
Click to expand...

crash.



and plus....would you go see a movie about a muslim shop keeper?sounds like a boring ass film to me.
 
Kendall said:
Why so many "mad scientist" characters?

-maybe a general concept of thinking that if one was smart enough to get away with something they would do it.
Click to expand...

Frankenstein complex.
Plus the general "dumbing down" ethos of Hollywood - smart people are evil; normal, nice people don't learn more than they should. Probe too far and you get what you deserve for not accepting the status quo.
 
Thanks for your interesting replies!
:)
Its true, many scientists have carried out evil acts for various reasons, science is after all a method, and can be used ethically or unethically.
good point remembering Tuskegee syphilis infections, and the atom bomb.
 
I totally forgot about the muslim terrorist character that we see a lot of these days. They are a prime example of what I was wondering about, although most would be considered religious followers rather than religious leaders. Hollywood and the TV networks (cough) have certainly gone to great lengths to feature these characters!
 
kenworth said:
crash.
Click to expand...

He was a Hindi thought to be a muslim, I believe. I am sure there is a film out there with a Muslim shopkeeper, but you get my point.


and plus....would you go see a movie about a muslim shop keeper?sounds like a boring ass film to me.[/QUOTE]

Not my point. There are plenty of films about people with boring jobs who end up in interesting situations, but these are never (polemically) Muslims. If we seem a Muslim, they have tended to be bad religious maniacs (or sometimes the Good arab cop to compensate in the same film, and he generally gets physically violent with suspects).

When it comes to scientists there are many films with scientists who end up helping, most blockbuster disaster, alien, sci fi movies have a scientist, nobly seeing the truth and not being listened to.

The first poster seemed concerned about balance. I think scientists come off OK.
 
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