Quote:Actually, I think that's a misperception, coming from the (if you'll forgive the usage) lens through which we view that world.
The Lensman world is sterile - people are either the best/brightest, or the worst/darkest.
The Lensmen are, yes, the best and the brightest - but they're also, explicitly, the result of an extremely discriminating selection process; anyone who isn't the best and the brightest washes out before receiving a Lens. For perspective, when the First Lensman was setting out to create the Galactic Patrol, IIRC he foundfewer than a dozen individuals of Lensman grade in the entire systemwide human race of the time. (I'd check the exact number, but I don't have the book handy.)
Likewise, most of the bad guys of whom we see enough to be able to make that sort of judgment are upper-echelon, hardcore Boskonians; the worst and the darkest are about the only ones likely to make it that far. There are a few exceptions there, too, of bad guys becoming good guys or showing not-wholly-bad traits (though fewer of the latter than the former). By and large, however, it's just that because of the nature of the events involved we don't get to *see* much of the more ordinary people; a few of them show up here and there, but for the most part they don't have occasion to come onscreen.