Peter Coates
Aug 29, 2024

Yes, wisely said. The horrors committed by monsters and psychopaths are inherently limited in scale. Epic horrors such as those committed by the Nazis, or the Soviets, or the Chinese Communists, are almost impossible to accomplish with crazy people and monsters. You need mature, solid citizens with skills to get the big things done. The "desk murderers" as Hanna Arendt called them. And you need them all the way down. Disciplined people with all the skills we learn in K-12. Not only are history's bad men not inexplicable monsters, most of them didn't even think of themselves as bad people. Most of them thought of themselves as benefactors of their countries, doing the hard things to make a better world. I think there are exceptions--a few of the evil dictators were simple gangsters, but most were crusaders in a sense, even Hitler.

Peter Coates
Peter Coates

Written by Peter Coates

I was an artist until my thirties when I discovered computers and jumped ship for a few decades. Now I'm back to it. You can probably find some on instagram.

Responses (1)