Do you know where the modern word villain comes from linguistically? Villain comes from the Middle English vilein. And vilein comes from the Late Latin villanus. And do you know what villanus means? It means serf or peasant. It means somebody bound to the land.
We villainize the poor and the so-called low born. The aristocratic hatred for the peasants upon which they depend for their lives is so profound that the word for peasant became the word for an evil-doer. Look at this progression for poor to evil, from working class to bad guy, from peasant to monster. Think about what this says about our assumptions. Just muse on this for a while.
Professor Harbinger's School for Villains 