solitary miser who detests Christmas. He is greedy, selfish, and has no regard for the well-being of others. Other writers associated with misanthropy include Gustave Flaubert and Philip Larkin. Mr. Burns from the TV show The Simpsons is a more recent example of misanthropy. He is one of the main antagonists and his main desire is to increase his already enormous wealth and power. He is ruthless in pursuing this goal and has no regard for the safety and well-being of others in the process. An even darker form of misanthropy is found in the character the Joker from the DC Universe. He is one of the main antagonists of Batman and acts as an agent of chaos. He believes that people are selfish, cruel, irrational, and hypocritical. He is usually portrayed as a sociopath with a twisted sense of humor who uses violent means to expose and bring down organized society. Related concepts Philosophical pessimism Misanthropy is closely related to but not identical with philosophical pessimism. Philosophical pessimism is the view that life as a whole is not worth living or that the world in general is a bad place, for example, because it is meaningless and full of suffering. This view is perhaps best exemplified by Arthur Schopenhauer, or in its most extreme form, Philipp Mainländer. Philosophical pessimism is often accompanied by misanthropy by holding that humanity is also bad and maybe partially responsible for the badness of the world. But the two views do not entail each other and can be held separately. A non-misanthropic pessimist may hold, for example, that humans are just victims of a terrible world but not to blame for it. Eco-misanthropists, on the other hand, may claim that the world and its nature are valuable but for the negative, destructive influence of humanity. Antinatalism and human extinction Antinatalism is the view that coming into existence is bad and that humans, therefore, have a duty to abstain from procreation. An important argument for antinatalism is the so-called misanthropic argument. It sees the deep flaws of humans and their tendency to cause harm as a reason for avoiding to create more humans. These harms include wars, genocides, factory farming, and damages done to the environment. This argument contrasts with philanthropic arguments, which focus on the future suffering of the human about to come into existence. They argue that the only way to avoid their