Posted by Ilya Somin: "Good" Intentions and the Nature of Evil: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_12_23-2007_12_29.shtml#1198547689
I think [1]Eugene is right to suggest that [2]Will Smith did not really say that Adolf Hitler was a good person, but merely claimed that Hitler himself believed that he was doing the right thing. The latter is, as far as I know, an uncontroversial statement among experts on Nazi Germany. However, it's striking so many observers - including the AP reporter who interviewed Smith and [3]Instapundit - seem to conflate the two. The confusion is at least in part the result of a shortcoming of the pop culture image of evil. We tend to think of evil people as those who know what they are doing is wrong, but do it anyway. In reality, most of the world's greatest evildoers - including Hitler - actually believe that their evil actions are morally praiseworthy. Many - notably the Nazis, Communists, and today's radical Islamists - have elaborate ideologies that validate those actions. Indeed, it is striking that most of [4]the great mass murders of the last century were committed by regimes with strong ideological and moral commitments - not by rulers whose sole motive was narrow self-interest or holding onto power. Even [5]serial killers often believe that their actions are justified - either on weird ideological grounds of some kind or as a response to real or imagined slights that they have suffered. In real life, there are very few cackling villains open reveling in (what they admit to be) their evil ways. As Smith said of Hitler, the typical mass murderer "woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, . . . set out to do what he thought was 'good'." We often praise those who seem "principled," are "people of faith," or show other signs of genuine moral commitment. The most dangerous evildoers, however, are not those who lack principles altogether, but those who believe all too fervently in the wrong ones. References 1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_12_23-2007_12_29.shtml#1198541498 2. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/wenn/20071223/ten-smith-hitler-was-a-good-person-c60bd6d_1.html 3. http://instapundit.com/archives2/013334.php 4. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_killer#Motives _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
