I’ve been thinking recently of wrecking balls. Not the Miley Cyrus varieties necessarily, though there’s certainly the possibilities for different interpretations – just ask the musician Billy Bragg for his darker interpretation of Britney Spears’ ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’. But no, I’m thinking of entities that will not stop, will not give in, until an adversary is annihilated. I’m thinking Putin’s Russia. I’m thinking plenty of Stephen King’s antagonists.

Because there are times when this can be seen as a positive, at least initially. The idea of hunting a nemesis down has been lionized in popular culture, adhered to in war and politics. It shows determination, an unwillingness to yield. In and of itself, it’s something that might well be laudible.

But what about when that purposefulness is wielded for the wrong reasons? I’m thinking like the husband Norman in King’s ‘Rose Madder’. Jim Dooley in ‘Lisey’s Story’. The antagonist in my present King read ‘The Outsider’ could walk away, could seek shelter against the band of warriors forming to wage battle. But that’s not what’s going to happen. And that’s not just because it wouldn’t be much of a story if such an antagonist turned tail. These antagonists won’t. Because they think they’re right. And how dare anyone ever tell them what to do or what they can’t have.

We may well be be unlucky enough to encounter a diluted form of this form of malignancy in our lives: through work, some aspect of our personal lives or, heaven forfend, in a family situation. We may be unlucky enough for them to set their sights on us. The Norman Daniels and Jim Dooleys of this world are very real. They don’t care. They won’t stop. There’s a little voice inside them that says they’re right, everyone else is wrong, and how fucking dare anyone mess with me. If we do end up here, we have the choice between running away and facing them. And if so, we better hope that there’s a Holly Gibney or a Dorcas around to help us. Because too often, and to be fair quite understandably, not many people want to tangle with someone (or something) like that.