by Kasper Hoe

Created on: March 25, 2010

Demons

“The worst demons are the demons within.”

As I remember, I heard this sentence in the movie adaption of Stephen King’s short story, The Mangler, where it was said by Robert Englund (a.k.a. the actor who performed Freddy Krueger).

And I think something is true about that sentence.

Many people say that demons don’t exist. But if you try to take a look at the world, what ever you look at yourself or the world outside, maybe you would see that demons exist in humans.

If you think of the psycho analytic theories by Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung, you have an opportunity to see a picture from a classic old Disney Cartoon with Donald Duck.

In those cartoons you often see Donald duck with and angel on the right shoulder and a devil on the left shoulder. Here come the demons within.

Because, if you try to look at the theories of Freud and Jung, you will be able to see that the angel is the good side (a.k.a. the conscience) of Donald Duck, and the devil is a picture of Donald Duck’s dark and evil side. According to Freud’s theory, the devil would symbolize Donald Duck’s id.

And now, I want to play a little demon’s game with you. Because, I think everybody has his own inner demons. Maybe some people won’t admit it, but in the picture above, I would feel fine about saying that everybody’s got his inner demon and I admit, I also have mine.

So, the demons are almost everywhere. The question is just, how much are people connected to their inner demons?

Let’s take a look through the time line of the history.

Let’s take a look at the streets of London in the 19th century. At least one example: Jack the Ripper.

I think he was pretty much in touch with his inner demon. He killed. Maybe it was not by instinct, but he did. Maybe he wasn’t just in touch with his inner demon, maybe he showed the world, that he was a demon himself. What do you think? Was he a demon or just a monster?

Many books and movies are written and made because of that guy, who was never found.

Okay, back to subject. People have their dark sides. Some people can live almost an entire life without showing this dark side more than just a bit. And then there are people who just show their dark sides almost all the time. But when is it demons within and when is it just totally evil?

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