@philosophyminis: William Blake once argued that Satan is the most interesting character. Of all of the cast in Milton's Paradise Lost, Satan is the truly energetic hero. Cast into hell, he refuses to repent. 'It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.' We are not meant to admire him, and yet we do. In 1966, the psychologist Jack Brehm wrote a book explaining why. His theory of reactance argues that when we feel a freedom is being taken away from us, we do not merely resent it. We want the forbidden thing more, and reach for it even when it harms us. There's some data to show that Brehm was right. In the 1970s, researchers put some signs up in university bathrooms. One asked sternly, 'Do not write on the walls under any circumstances,' and the other asked people quite politely. The stern sign attracted far more graffiti over a few weeks than the one that asked people nicely. This is why, if you ban a book, people want to read it even more. It's why you want to find out a secret that somebody hasn't told you. But it's also why the cleverest manipulators in life will not tell you to actually do something. They will say that you are not smart enough, you are not good enough, or you are not strong enough to do something. Reverse psychology really works, even if you know about it. Blake's Satan is seen as a hero because he sees a cast out, miserable freedom as better than a gilded cage. It is better to live your own life badly than to be pulled along by somebody else. 'It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.'

Jonny Thomson

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Monday 08 June 2026 13:21:49 GMT