# Motivation for a Villain Trying to Dismantle Civilization



## Crying (Oct 27, 2014)

So I have a villain in my NaNoWriMo novel who is trying to take down a bunch of satellites to take down the global internet/cell system/etc and thus probably dismantle modern society. However, I want him to have some sort of motivation, and I'm having trouble thinking of one. I don't want him to be one-dimensional, so I can't just go with 'because he's evil and he wants to destroy the world', but I can't think of anything else to motivate him. Any thoughts?


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## Gargh (Oct 27, 2014)

Me, I'd have him thinking of the modern world as an infectious plague that needs to be eradicated. Or perhaps it's just the latest upgrade? Maybe he's convinced if he fulfils XY&Z that we can all ascend, or make first contact, or that his little sister will come back from the dead?! I'd definitely lean towards some sort of logical fallacy, myself. Even at the wackiest end of the scale, it's the most plausible cause of outrageous human behaviour.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Oct 27, 2014)

Maybe he is some sort of an old world guy who laments the human dependency on things such as the internet and cable. I know we tend to get in a panic when the cable goes out, silly as it may sound


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## Gargh (Oct 27, 2014)

^ Like it. & maybe he just got tired of having to relearn how to do everything every five minutes because some marketing numbnuts somewhere decided there was a marginally more efficient way of doing it. It probably would be quicker, and easier, just to start the world over.


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## Riis Marshall (Oct 27, 2014)

Hello Crying

You may want to check out _Motivation and Personality_ by A. H. Maslow. If you're not familiar with this classic, I think it's worth your time - or anybody's time, for that matter.

Without going into any detail about Maslow, in response to your question I submit that everything we do, everything anybody does, we do because it addresses some need within us. It may be something quite subtle that works on a subconscious level, or it may be something quite obvious and not subtle at all.

So, under the assumption you have spent some time and thought creating your character, ask yourself what kind of need he has that would drive him to want to dismantle civilization. Remember, he may not be able to articulate this need: it may be buried deep in his subconscious, but you as his creator are allowed to know what drives him whether he does or not.

All the best with your writing.

Warmest regards
Riis


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## InstituteMan (Oct 27, 2014)

When I dream of taking out the global communication systems, it is for the sake of power and profit. For example, maybe my minions and I are the only people still with working telecommunication technology, allowing my team and I to launch a coordinated attack. Maybe we are stealing all of the knowledge on the Internet while the proletariat are doomed to a new Dark Ages. Maybe knocking out the satellites lets my alien spaceships sneak in undetected. There's lots of useful reasons to knock out satellites if you are an evil genius.


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## Xan (Oct 29, 2014)

Religion. Somebody has attempted just about everything in the name of one religion or another. It can be the antagonist's own personal religion, or a small cult, or whatever.

It could be the antagonist wants to start a war but knows he will lose if various countries have their communication advantage. Or he wants revenge on a country (say the antagonist is a neo-Nazi) and can't do it alone, so he orchestrates a war, "Sum of All Fears" style.

Maybe the antagonist has a vested interest in satellite companies and wants to make more money.

Maybe the antagonist believes radio waves and other such things are mutating humanity, and is actually trying to save the human race.


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## ppsage (Oct 29, 2014)

Some scrawny necked nerd who stole fortuitous software and became the richest man in the world. Now all his friends own basketball teams and won't play D & D with him anymore. And he's such a garrulous bore that only his hot wife is invited to the charity galas, no matter how much he gives. He thinks the com infrastructure is his personal sandbox and that humanity doesn't deserve access anymore. Plus he's got the wherewithal to be a creditable threat. He starts to identify with Mr. Burns so he gets all the Simpsons on disk and tries to pull the plug.


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## K.S. Crooks (Nov 10, 2014)

A few ideas I had- His daughter was killed in a car accident by someone driving and texting;his family was killed by a smart bomb guided by GPS satellites; he feels that humans are becoming too much like machines and that the internet is a virus that must be stopped; After surviving being in the North Tower of the World Trade Centre he wants to stop all global acts of terrorism by removing world communications. Hope these spark a few ideas for you.


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## InnerFlame00 (Nov 11, 2014)

Perhaps he is trying to dismantle society so that he can rebuild it to his vision and rule it the way he sees fit.  He doesn't trust people to make 'rational decisions' so he decides he must make all decisions for them by taking over.


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## Morkonan (Nov 11, 2014)

Crying said:


> ...so I can't just go with 'because he's evil and he wants to destroy the world', ..



Why not?

You could, for instance, have him develop a lust for carnage, due to some other motivation, and then "destroying the world" would just be a logical evolution of that.

Or, he doesn't have to be evil at all. "Trashcanman" in King's "The Stand" wasn't "evil." He just worshiped fire. For him, burning everything down was a religious experience, though he seemed to gain a bit more personal pleasure from it than a you might expect from a religious fanatic.

Perhaps the character has judged the world "unworthy" according to their own value system? That's simple enough to play with and get a wide range of choices for motivations.

Maybe the villain wants revenge due to feelings of persecution? Maybe they're a great scientist (or see themselves as one) and have had their work ridiculed by their peers, who obviously do not understand the importance of measuring the male sex organs of platapi... platapusses... plati.. whatever... 

Simply because you have chosen a very large scale does not mean that your character's motivation has to be any different than anyone elses daily motivations. Why do bullies choose to beat up weaker kids for their lunch money? Why do people get "road rage" and choose to ram their car into someone else's? Why do husbands beat their wives or vice-versa? Why are some people compulsive eaters and others suffer from anorexia or bulemia? It might even be that picking a very simple motivation will provide you with an interesting scaffolding to explore other aspects of this character. Why, with such a simple motivation, would the character be insistent on destroying the world, even though it's obvious that there are easier solutions to their problem or more appropriate paths for their rage? You can build upon that, as you wish, and the "simple" motivation becomes something that gains complexity with every page.


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## Xan (Nov 11, 2014)

Crying said:


> So I have a villain in my NaNoWriMo novel who is trying to take down a bunch of satellites to take down the global internet/cell system/etc and thus probably dismantle modern society.


You know, I just realized the premise of this is flawed. Satellites play a big part in satellite TV and phone calls from the middle of jungles, but almost all phone calls use hard-line cables. Fiber cables, specifically, like the one between the US and India. These fiber cables are laid across the ocean floor at huge expense, but satellite calls have a very pronounced delay.

Cell phones basically never use satellites. Your cell phone communicates with a tower, and that tower is connected to the landline network. So your call goes from phone to tower, tower to landline networks, across that network to another tower, and from that tower to the receivers' cell phone.

Internet services do use satellites a bit more frequently, but even then there are huge fiber-optic cables crisscrossing the oceans. Bringing down the satellites would impact the internet, for sure, but it wouldn't overload it entirely, and governments in particular would still have plenty of access to anything they needed. At least in the US, bringing down satellites would not bring down the communication network. It would probably have some significant economic impacts, but no doomsday event.

Course, you could set your story in an alternate world where satellites actually are used pretty exclusively for global communication. Just realize that in such a world, all international communication would have significant of delay in conversation times, or else they have better wireless technology to cut through atmospheric interference than we do today.


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## Savalric (Nov 29, 2014)

Xan said:


> You know, I just realized the premise of this is flawed. Satellites play a big part in satellite TV and phone calls from the middle of jungles, but almost all phone calls use hard-line cables. Fiber cables, specifically, like the one between the US and India. These fiber cables are laid across the ocean floor at huge expense, but satellite calls have a very pronounced delay.
> 
> Cell phones basically never use satellites. Your cell phone communicates with a tower, and that tower is connected to the landline network. So your call goes from phone to tower, tower to landline networks, across that network to another tower, and from that tower to the receivers' cell phone.
> 
> ...



I was thinking this same thing when I saw his idea. Satellites are important, just not as much for the average civilian. He could take control of them and by some science magic, take out communications. After all, anything that can send a signal can receive one, and anything that can receive a signal can be hacked. 

As for the motivation behind this, love never seems to fail, despite it being awfully cliche. Be it his mother not loving him enough, or his preacher loving him too much, you really can't go wrong. Maybe he was cyberbullied as a kid and now he wants to cyber bully the world. It'd make for an interesting turn of events.


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## Fez (Nov 29, 2014)

He could be motivated by the anti-villainous motive of, what is in his mind, saving civilization from itself. Seeing how fast technology, specifically weapons of war, is advancing he fears that the modern world could soon destroy itself.


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## codenamedarksky (Jan 10, 2015)

I know you've probably heard this, but you've honestly got two plausible kinds of motivation: practical and personal. Most of the time, these don't coincide.
"Practical" is mostly about material, ultimately insubstantial gain, like power or money, and is often impersonal. If they don't ever have the motivation to go after this goal, they would live normal, peaceful lives. This makes the villain less relatable and all the more malevolent. 
"Personal" is more emotional, and makes your villain more relatable, and deals more with loss than gain. The villain has lost something incredibly close to them (say, losing a lover as opposed to a favorite coffee mug), and will either a) stop at nothing to get that person/object back, b) wants revenge, or c) ultimately, doesn't give a sh*t anymore and wants to, as the cliche goes, "watch the world burn". 

But, ultimately, the choice is yours.


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