Evil

When encountering the serially haunted futility of so much of our species’ belligerently selfish behavioural vocabulary, I often resort to an attempted witty quip to the effect that this is, yet again and quite simply, “human beings being human”. It is not after all as though most who conduct themselves in variously disgraceful ways have quite as much regulatory insight or influence over their own reflexively instinctual actions as they might prefer to believe. Yes, ethics obligates that we assert responsibility but the moral aptitude to assume it seems sadly lacking in a large number of otherwise reasonable people.