Hannibal Lector Uncontrollable

Hannibal Lector and Fear of the Uncontrollable
Society values conformity and cooperation because it is safer, and more efficient for a community as a whole. Naturally, individuals who create their own values get rejected by society, and if they stray to far from society's norm, they become despised and feared. Hannibal Lector’s practice of serial murders and cannibalism, both acts that his society condemns, makes him an outcast, locked in a cell like an animal, because that is the way society sees him. Society fears him because he uncontrollable; his unwilling to submit to societies standards, and his unusual intelligence makes him an unpredictable and unprecedentedly dangerous entity. People enjoy watching Hannibal Lecter because it reflects a fear inside everyone, not necessarily that we might be murdered or eaten, but that we have no control over our lives. Hannibal Lecter is a physical manifestation of a fear that survives in the back of people’s minds, wary of the time when the luxury of having control over our lives is gone.
Humans have the intellect to form productive societies, but to maintain them, a price is paid in the form of part of people’s individuality and ability to think for themselves. Naturally, when one doesn’t conform, they are seen as a threat to society, no matter what the offense is.
“Fortunately, or, rather, unfortunately for those who did not conform to the masses, civilization has a history of being rather unkind to those who failed to meet their level of desired conformity. There are persistent messages throughout history that tell the same story from the Bible, to the Roman Empire, to the Salem witch trials, to the rules of our own government: Conform or be judged as we see fit. And who is going to stop the masses? They are in greater number, greater strength, and their way is law.” (Andrew