Monday, July 29, 2013

Understanding Evil


The man sitting in front of me is a mass murderer. He is a serial rapist and a torturer. We are chatting about the weather, his family, his childhood. We are sharing drinks and exchanging gifts. The man is in his 80s now, frail and harmless, even charming. Instinctively I like him. It is hard for me to connect him to the monster he was so many decades ago. I think it must be hard for him, too.

Read the rest of James Dawes here.

[HT: Arts & Letters Daily]

2 comments:

Dan in Philly said...

Interesting, sad, horrifying, and profound all at once.

Michael Wade said...

Dan,

And getting some people to acknowledge the existence of evil is a major step.

Michael