Most people who commit evil acts do not themselves regard their actions as evil. Therefore, to understand their perspective is to understand the actions in a way that somehow diminishes their evilness. To be sure, as researchers and scientists our primary goal is to understand. Hence we must perhaps accept that our approach will carry the moral risk of mitigating our condemnation of some of the worst things that human beings do.
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The third root cause of evil is idealism. In some ways this is the most disturbing and tragic, because the perpetrators are motivated by the belief that they are doing something good. Idealists of both the left and the right have sometimes believed that their noble goals justify violent means. The worst body counts of the twentieth century were perpetrated by people who believed that they were doing what was necessary to create a utopian society, whether this reflected a left-wing vision (as in the communist slaughters in China and the Soviet Union) or a right-wing one (as in the horrors perpetrated by Nazi Germany). Earlier centuries witnessed slaughters perpetrated in the name of religion, as people killed to serve their gods.
To be sure, sometimes the idealism was a cover for baser motives, including instrumental ones. Some people used religious wars or persecutions to enrich themselves. Yet it is not reasonable to dismiss the sincere idealism of many of the perpetrators. In a large expedition such as the Crusades, there were some along for the adventure and others hoping to get rich. But many honestly believed that they were doing God’s work by fighting the infidels in order to reclaim sacred ground for what they thought was the true faith.
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From the victim’s perspective, these different root causes do make a difference. The instrumentally violent person can be bought off. If he wants your money, you can give it to him, and that in most cases reduces, ends, or avoids the harm that comes to you. Threatened egotism likewise produces violence that is a means to an end, and so victims can sometimes satisfy the perpetrator and terminate their suffering. If and when the perpetrator’s egotism is satisfied, the attack may stop. In contrast, the victims of the idealists have fewer options, because in many cases they believe that their sacred goals require the victim’s death. It is harder to compromise with an idealist than with an opportunist. And, last, if the perpetrator is a sadist, the victim’s lot is clearly the worst. There is not much chance to buy him off or appease him to reduce your suffering, especially if your suffering is precisely what is rewarding to him.
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Many causes of aggression and violence operate by interfering with self-regulation. Alcohol has been shown to impair self-regulation in almost every sphere that has been studied (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1994), for example, and alcohol is well established as a cause of violence (Bushman & Cooper, 1990). (Alcohol is neither a necessary nor sufficient cause, to be sure. It is just a moderator; though it is a rather powerful moderator.) Intense emotion impairs self-regulation, and it too can undermine restraints against violent impulses. Media violence may likewise increase aggression by weakening inner restraints.
In my view, the role of self-regulation in restraining violence has more than theoretical importance. If one considers the four root causes of evil, it is easy to become pessimistic. Those four will not be eradicated any time soon, and so the problem of evil may appear intractable. But preventing evil and reducing violence do not depend on eliminating the root causes. We can simply strengthen the restraints. If we improve self-control, we can indeed make the world a better place and reduce the quantity of evil. In other words, it may be overly optimistic to hope that violent impulses can be eliminated from human social life.
- Read the full paper here.
What this paper doesn't include are the modern-day cable news channels that are the genesis of a perpetually angry mob from our supposedly safe living rooms. This is a phenomenon never seen in history and this is already causing a lot of ripples in our civilized life.
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