Eine interessante Frage in einem Tweet.
Wie man sieht gehen die meisten Leute davon aus, dass die allerwenigsten Leute wirklich bösartig sind.
Die meisten Menschen werden zumindest in einer gewissen Weise gut sein wollen, zumindestens etwa weil sie zB meinen durch äußere Umstände gezwungen zu sein, weil sie zB ihre Familie ernähren wollen, weil die Welt sie unfair zurückgehalten hat oder weil sie anderweitig benachteiligt worden sind und das nur der Ausgleich ist.
Dazu auch noch mal die Erinnerung an den „Mythos des puren Bösen“:
The first and perhaps least interesting one to a psychologist is instrumentality. Evil acts are often merely a means to an end. People turn to violence as one means of getting what they want. What they want is typically not so different from what other people want. They want money, land, power, sex, and the like. They turn to violence in some cases because they cannot get what they want by more accepted, legitimate means. (…)
the second root cause of evil and violence is threatened egotism. When I began my research I had heard the standard theory that violence is perpetrated by people with low selfesteem. As I searched for the source and evidence, however, it emerged that this was one of those things that everybody knew but nobody had really ever shown. Moreover, the facts repeatedly contradicted it. A large literature review concluded, instead, that perpetrators of violence typically had very favorable views of themselves, sometimes absurdly so (Baumeister, 11 Smart, & Boden, 1996) (…)
The third root cause of evil is idealism. In some ways this is the most disturbing and tragic, because the perpetrators are motivated by the belief that they are doing something good. Idealists of both the left and the right have sometimes believed that their noble goals justify violent means. The worst body counts of the twentieth century were perpetrated by people who believed that they were doing what was necessary to create a utopian society, whether this reflected a left-wing vision (as in the communist slaughters in China and the Soviet Union) or a right-wing one (as in the horrors perpetrated by Nazi Germany). Earlier centuries witnessed slaughters perpetrated in the name of religion, as people killed to serve their gods. To be sure, sometimes the idealism was a cover for baser motives, including instrumental ones. Some people used religious wars or persecutions to enrich themselves. Yet it is not reasonable to dismiss the sincere idealism of many of the perpetrators. In a large expedition such as the Crusades, there were some along for adventure and others hoping to get rich. But many honestly believed that they were doing God’s work by fighting the infidels in order to reclaim sacred ground for what they thought was the true faith. (…)
The fourth and final root cause is sadism, defined as sincere enjoyment from inflicting harm. Earlier I said that it may be most precise to refer to three and a half roots rather than four. Sadism would be the half