Chances are that the last couple of days, you’ve heard or read something about the recent election in Iran. Allegations of stuffed ballot boxes and fraud are everywhere. From everything that we in the west have ever seen from Ahmadinejad, we don’t really have any reason to doubt the allegations. People are passionate about it, too.

I don’t want to rob the situation of its gravity, but I do think there’s a lesson for writers (and readers) there. There is a natural human trait that loves to hate tyrants. This is especially true in America, probably because American history truly began with the overthrow of a tyrant. But, you can see this same reaction in Russia, China, France, even in the muted passions of my homeland, Canada. When people feel oppressed by tyrants, they will respond in some way. They may still get beaten down, but they’ll respond, and they’ll have support from around the world.

You can see this in great sci-fi and fantasy, too. The Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov explores ideas of subtle tyranny versus outright tyranny and left me wondering which was worse. So too did the Shadow series set in the Ender-verse by Orson Scott Card. These are themes that readers will connect with naturally (in varying degrees, of course). Realizing this is really helping me with my previous question about how to write bad guys. Sometimes it doesn’t need to be one bad guy. Instead, it can by a tyrannical system. Of course, usually you do find one bad guy at the head of that system.