There are many ideas about who and what are threats in today’s society. The true threat is creative people, said former NIU professor Tom Filsinger.

Using the term “dark menace” to refer to creative people, Filsinger, now an associate professor of psychology at Jamestown Community College in New York as well as the owner of the card game company Filsinger Games, explains this belief in his memoir on creativity, “The Dark Menace of the Universe.”

“A ‘dark menace’ is someone who dares to be an individual in today’s world where pressures to conform are both subtle and all-pervasive,” Filsinger said. “[They are] any self-actualized person who swims against the current in order to seek fulfillment and adventure in life.”

Creative people, Filsinger said, sometimes experience animosity from peers because of the way they think and the fact they are not afraid to try new things.

“Innovators and creators are a threat to most social systems because they are always imagining and espousing alternatives to the way things are,” Filsinger said. “Hence they will arouse anger and frustration in people around them.”

Filsinger uses the term “Stomp Psychology” to refer to the way people sometimes react to creative people.

“[Someone’s] first impulse is to “stomp” on these ideas and to bury the people who [use] them,” he said.

Filsinger, 48, attended NIU from 1980 to 1982 and received a master’s degree in social/personality psychology. He thinks highly of his experience at NIU.

“I met many interesting people at NIU and these experiences helped shape my life,” he said. “I enjoyed my relationships with graduate students and faculty. These relationships enriched my life and many continued long after I departed from DeKalb.”

Filsinger has advice for NIU students.

“Be yourself,” he said. “It’s the hardest thing a person can ever do in our society because there are no barometers for actually measuring whether you are being yourself or not.”

Students at Jamestown have created a “Dark Menaces of Society” club, which Filsinger thinks should be started at NIU.

“If you start a dark menace club at NIU, I’ll totally come to give a speech,” he said.