answer:The actual villain, or the perceived villain? I think this makes a difference. I’m sure I’ve been the perceived villain in many people’s stories. Few are those who enjoy having their beliefs or their arguments challenged, and I do it a lot. I’m fairly indiscriminate about it, too, and have been condemned for critiquing people on “my side” as often as I have been for being “too harsh” on the “other side.” But honestly, I find it difficult to consider myself the actual villain in those stories. Having our arguments challenged by people who understand how rational debate works is good for us. It makes smarter, better people, and I’m very glad to be part of a profession full of people who know how to put me in my place. I actually find it quite ironic that philosophers will frequently be accused of being ivory tower types, but get attacked the moment they start practicing their discipline in public. At least we don’t get executed for it anymore. I imagine some people will see that answer as sanctimonious, however, so here’s a less flattering instance. My first year of college, a friend of mine was fired from the student newspaper after discovering that two members of the student council had embezzled money from the treasury (money paid by students in the form of fees added to their tuition). His response was to sabotage both the newspaper and the student council proceedings. I was his inside man, still working for the newspaper and helping him do all of these things. I even got anonymous articles published supporting his actions. We did all of this undercover using an office key he had stolen and changing the approved drafts just before they went out to the printers. The head of the newspaper—who was a faculty member—suspected both of us and did an awful lot of work to catch us at it before we quit. We cost the student newspaper quite a bit of money, and it almost went under. On the one hand, we felt perfectly righteous about our actions as we were also trying to pursue and expose the embezzlement story at the same time. On the other hand, we almost destroyed an important part of several journalism majors’ education in an effort to get back at a bad faculty member (who knew about the story and wanted to cover it up because it implicated a friend of hers). There are better ways we could have gone about it, and maybe we would have had we not been 18 years old and so damn sure we were in the right. I’m all for some good rebellion, but these days I prefer thought to precede action. It was a lesson learned for me, and I’m glad I learned it then rather than later.