Meaning:
The evil and malevolent aspect of human personality or society, often
referred to in a lighthearted or comic context.
Background (edited):
The wide adoption of the term 'The Dark Side' certainly came about as a
result of the plot line of the 1977 film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,
written and directed by George Lucas. In that context, Lucas portrayed the
'dark side' concept as the evil aspect of the the underlying controlling
power of the Universe - which he called 'The Force'.
...
Lucas had other cultural influences to draw on when creating the 'dark side'
concept. In the Christian imagery of the medieval mind, the 'light' and dark'
sides of God' were Heaven and the angels and evil, sin and the Devil
respectively. The radical theologian Jacob Bauthumley (a.k.a. Bottomley)
wrote about this as early as the 17th century in The light and dark sides of
God, 1650:
Some live in the light side of God, and some in the dark side.
...
The current use of 'the dark side' in everyday language isn't taken as
seriously as Jung, or even Lucas, might have intended it. It has the same
linguistic feel as a phrase like 'be afraid, be very afraid', which is never
used in circumstances that are actually frightening . Someone might
humorously be said to be 'going over to the dark side' if they opt for a
preference for something that is out of fashion or not a social group's
accepted preference - like a Londoner supporting Manchester United, for
example.
- www.phrases.org.uk
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My friend Gell, a Jiu-jitsu buddy and great guy, quipped that I had gone to the
dark side when I donned on a new black gi, two years ago. I easily got the joke
(I came from a culture of Yin-and-Yang, after all), and even used it once
afterwards, but never suspected a background for such a simple expression!
Bauthumley's observation seems to suggest that the old Chinese idea applies even
to the Christian God!
