The first dangerous mistake the average person makes is the assumption that “evil” is a kind of subjective or “gray” concept. We would love to believe that all destructive and malicious behavior is merely a product of bad environment, bad upbringing, or mental psychosis. Deviance in the name of misguided “profit” or “status” is often more acceptable to the public; as long as there is a reason we can easily understand and grasp. What frightens the average American today is not the abhorrent action of criminality; rather, it is criminality without easily definable reason. What frightens the common citizen is the possibility that some people hurt others not because mommy and daddy “mistreated” them, or because they have a psychological deficiency that clouds their judgment, but because they fully and consciously ENJOY doing what they do. Our society is desperate to make excuses for the monsters of our era, perhaps because we would rather not entertain the possibility that there is a dark side to humanity as a whole, that if left unchecked, could take control in a deliberate and calculated way.
This is why the greatest crimes of our time often go ignored by the public. The idea, for instance, that international financiers and political elites would purposely create economic disparity, social chaos, and global war out of a desire for centralized power and a disturbed sense of superiority is simply too much for many to handle. Surely, these terrible events throughout our modern history are merely the result of random coincidence and human error…right?
