Near the end of the first Die Hard movie SPOILER ALERT! , the evil Hans Gruber — played in a reptilian manner by Alan Rickman — is dropped backwards off a high-up story of the Nakatomi Plaza to certain death. It's one of the more satisfying ways of disposing of the Bad Guy in any movie I've ever seen. The audience in the theater when I saw it couldn't have been happier. After hours of hating that loathsome, murdering asshole, he was finally being killed in a spectacular manner. In slow-motion, no less.
I suspect some of them ran out and bought the DVD just so they could replay that moment over and over and over. It's one of the reasons we go to that kind of movie. We all have Bad Guys in our lives and while they're often punished or even somehow eradicated, it usually isn't in such a total and gratifying moment.
In my lifetime (72 years plus change), I have often — not always — seen my Bad Guys eliminated or punished or even in at least one instance, killed…but it's never as immediate or simple or even as satisfying as seeing Alan Rickman realizing his plan has been foiled and he's plunging to his death. If you're expecting a Bad Guy of yours to meet a similar fate in the real world, you'll probably be disappointed. Some of my Bad Guys took a long time to plunge and probably never realized what they'd done and how they were paying for it. But they did go away. I have had to learn to be content with that.
In case you're wondering about my Bad Guy who got killed: He was a roofer who worked on my house a few decades back, charged me a lot of money and ultimately did more damage than repairs. He refused to correct his destruction, leaving me no recourse but to sue him…but it turned out that wasn't an option either. My lawyer reported back that I'd have to wait at the end of a very long line of other clients who were suing this Very Bad Guy.
And even the folks in that line never got a nickel out of him. One night, that roofer got drunk, tried to kill his wife and the police shot and killed him. I was not there to see it. I hope that if I had been, I would not have enjoyed the moment because I wouldn't want to be the kind of person who would have enjoyed that moment.
But like you, there are people around — mostly in public life but a few in private — who I'd just like to see disappear. I don't long to see them shot or injured or even dropped backwards off the Nakatomi Plaza because that's barbaric and anyway, that's probably not going to happen. But I think there's a good chance of them going away and no longer doing whatever damage I think they do to the world and the people in it or maybe just me. I'll be satisfied with that.