Making Evil: The Science Behind Humanity’s Dark Side

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But how typical was Eichmann? He was the arch-bureaucrat, sitting in his office, deciding how many ‘pieces’ (i.e. people) would be transferred to Auschwitz, on which train, on which day. That’s at quite a distance from the sorts of cruelty that were actually going on face-to-face in the camps. His evil might have been more banal because it was largely done at a distance. What I found really interesting about the book, and why I put this on my list, is that he talks a lot about the fascination we have with these men, and in particular he talks about the moral issues we have when we struggle to understand them. One observation that he gives, which is very moving, is that these are nice guys: they are elderly Japanese men, they are very contrite about their actions, they’re often funny and gracious hosts, and interesting people to talk to. Dawes found himself liking many of them, and he talks about what that feels like. But he’s not in a place to forgive them—he wasn’t a victim, nothing was done to him. So how do we deal with this? He also talks more generally about the pornography of violence that draws us to atrocities—to the Holocaust, slavery, and so on. Do I believe everything Terry sets out to prove? Absolutely not. Of course there was a lot of hippy-dippy hocus-pocus horseshit going on in the 70's and occult murders do happen. I could not help but recall that this book was published in 1987 at the height of the Satanic Panic, the same year the McMartin preschool trial started. And yet, far more of this book is sensible and grounded than you might expect. Terry is incredibly meticulous, serious, had an encyclopedic knowledge and doesn't sensationalize. I think he fully believed what what he put in this book, I just believe he saw many connections which were tenuous or false. Here is the third volume in George R.R. Martin's magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. Together, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction. Agreed! This is a very timely book in the light of the current ‘Me Too’ movement. She describes sexual harassment and sexual assault, and she has a moving chapter on strangulation. She spends a lot of time on the case of Eliot Rogers, this man who felt he was always rejected by women, and then went on a shooting spree, killing many people, and finally killing himself. She describes these cases in some depth, and provides a really interesting analysis. I see this analysis as the mirror image of David Livingstone Smith’s, although they could both be right for different cases.

Your first book is a very famous one, Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem. As a journalist for the New Yorker, Arendt went to report on the trial of the notorious Nazi responsible for organising the trains that took people to their deaths at Auschwitz. The book was first published as essays in the New Yorker in 1963. Russell begins with the observation that when the term evil is used as a description of moral horror and condemnation, it refers to some act or a person’s character that is in some important way normatively different from those standard cases of immoral acts and bad persons. To call someone or an action evil is not just to simply add an intensifier to the view that what we have is something very wrong. Further, it is not merely about the quantity of harm done or the nature of the motivation when acting. Instead, the term ‘evil’ seeks to capture something special, the particular horror and dreadful effects of some actions, and the incomprehensible and terrifying characters of people who behave in this way. Yes. The consequences of this are extremely serious. When one person is violent to another this sometimes leads to what the victim sees as a justifiable and proportionate retaliation; but in the eyes of the person whom he takes action against, that retaliation is going too far, and so it provokes an even greater counter-reaction. And so on. If Baumeister is right, the escalation of violence in these sorts of circumstances is inevitable since the recipient always sees the violence against him as worse than anything he had previously done. Think about the worst thing you have ever done. Something that you are probably ashamed of [...] Infidelity. Theft. Lying. Now imagine everyone knew about it. Judged you for it. [...] For our decisions we see the nuances, the circumstances, the difficulties. For others we often just see the outcome of their decisions. This leads us to define human beings, in all their complexity, by a single heinous term. Murderer. Rapist.”

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Cole’s book seeks to show why the very concept of evil is empty, unnecessary and dangerous. It stands as a sceptic’s criticism of all accounts of evil.

With her heart sworn to the warrior-prince by her side, and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save, Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, and dark forces become poised to claim her world, the only chance for salvation will lie in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.This collection of essays offers historical accounts of evil from Plato to Camus along with the recent secular debates concerning evil acts and persons. Other chapters, however, are filled w The Rape of Nanjing by Iris Chang is still unfinished on my bookshelf. It is a well researched book that details the Japanese atrocities in Nanjing during the Sino-Japanese war but it is difficult to face the detailed descriptions of their inhumanity to fellow human beings and I had to put it aside. Maybe I will steel myself to finish it one day.” lwb48_zh

There were also a lot of contradicting arguments in the book. One that stood out to me was Shaw’s stance on porn – it’s not that bad and we should stop being so critical of the porn industry and those obsessed with it, and maybe we should allow porn to be used in health classes. But later in the book goes on to wag her finger at misogyny, chastising society for allowing ourselves to become over-saturated with images of women that promote an unhealthy idea of sex and women’s bodies, ultimately leading to demeaning women in society. As I said, this is the mirror image of the very convenient, very palpable message in the dehumanisation work. What Manne is saying is that when you recognise people’s humanity—she links this with Peter Strawson’s notion of reactive attitudes—there are all sorts of moral risks. There’s a lovely passage on this in her book where she points out that to see someone as human means it is possible for that person to be a true friend or a beloved spouse, but it also means that he or she can compete with you, or disagree with you, or humiliate you, or betray you. Men and women often live together, and so you’re nose to nose with an independent cognitive agent, and this, along with misogyny, makes possible all sorts of cruelty and violence.One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them The author touches on this subjectivity early in the book, by telling her readers that “I guarantee that somebody thinks you’re evil.” Initially I found this a bit disconcerting – I consider myself a fairly inoffensive sort of fellow – but of course the author is right. To return to the example of political or religious extremists, members of extremist groups often consider anyone outside their group as evil. One unexpected situation in which our sadistic tendencies seem to show themselves is in the presence of cute animals. Have you ever seen a puppy that was so adorable that you just couldn’t handle it? Where you felt like you wanted to take your hands and squeeze it’s floppy little face really hard? Some animals are just so cute that we feel a bit like we want to hurt them.” Yes, definitely. But there are also the psychological issues of how it’s acquired, how it’s represented, and how people differ. Not everybody is equally misogynistic. Some people might show subtle implicit biases, others obvious and blatant ones. We may all be misogynists to some extent, but I’ve never strangled anybody, and I don’t think I ever would. There are all sorts of psychological questions that Manne, by choice, isn’t that interested in. That’s OK. It’s her book.