—(it is so boringly easy to do)
 
    A special kind of violence is institutionalized violence. The massacre of American Indians, lynchings of African Americans in the 19th and 20th century Southern United States, the Nazi Holocaust, massacres of civilians in Vietnam by American GI’s,  "Ethnic cleansings" in Bosnia, Albania, and Africa all horrify us. When the people who lynched the southern black men or ordered thousands of Jews to the gas chambers in Germany were confronted with their deeds they expressed no remorse. They loved their own families, their friends, their neighbors and even seemed at peace with God. It seems inexplicable until you know how easy Evil can be.
The Four Steps for Committing Evil
(with a Clear Conscience)
l.  Dehumanize the "other" by calling them dehumanizing nicknames. Racial and ethnic slurs are meant to say the "other" is less than us. Attribute all kinds of bad things to the "other"—even if they are contradictory—
 "They are lazy. They are trying to get all the jobs…"
  "They are stupid. They control all the money."
2.  Commit an act of violence toward the other—beating up someone in the "other" group. Or it can be torture or murder.
3.  Have the authority figures help you rationalize that your violence was necessary or "good."
    They deserved it….
    They were going to get you first…
    They were going to get your family or friends…
    You taught them an important lesson…
    Now we will have justice.
4.  Repeat the violent act. After the first violent act, people are upset and want to stop, but if they repeat the act—Gas another prisoner, kill another Tutsi, or Vietnamese or Albanian or Crip or black or white, their human conscience seems to make a major shift, and many normal people will live peacefully with their evil acts until death.
    This section probably deserves a sign:
 
WARNING KIDS!
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!
or
 
WARNING DESPOTS!
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
How to Combat Evil
1.  Don’t allow racial and ethnic slurs to pass. Anything that allows some people to frame people as "others" or "them"—who are less good than "us" is the beginning of a slippery slope that some people will fall down.  People can say whatever they wish, but the majority should condemn  as "ignorant" all stereotyping slurs that seek to dehumanize and make "them" less good than "us."
2.  Quickly speak out to condemn all individual violent acts against any human being, particularly if some people are starting to rationalize or praise the violent act as a "step toward justice," "God's will," "Something ‘they’ deserved" or other such clap trap.
3.  Once the evil is repeated, it is pretty hard to do much. Our newspapers are filled with the results of men and women of clear conscience who proclaim the righteousness of their violent acts.
But don't fall into the trap of treating the evil doers as "them" or  as "others" who deserve to be treated violently or unfairly. They are human beings who have done wrong and need to make up for their evil acts. But they are human beings.
 

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