Despite the lies and denials, Israel is seen under the magnifying glass as the most hated nation on earth. Less than a century ago, it was embraced by a sympathetic world after the persecution of the Holocaust, now stages its own Holocaust, on other lands, with other victims.
A confused world has turned upside down, unable to differentiate between man and beast. Both kill to survive, and the killing continues — it becomes easier, it becomes natural. Fostered by hate, violence or greed, the task becomes simple, even enjoyable: “I haven’t killed anyone in the last six minutes. It’s overdue.”
The inevitable ascent of the power to kill should be shameful to ordinary people but there are those out of the ordinary, the extraordinary, the subordinary. Those are deranged specimens whose integral evil is in their nature.
It matters little that they murder millions in a variety of ways, even burying them alive. It matters little that the US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, mutilating hundreds of thousands left without eyesight or charred with severe burns. Has man no pity for his fellow man? Animals kill to survive, why do humans kill?
The vast body of research around the motivation of killers has resulted in the so-called Dark Triad theory, which comprises three personality traits: narcissism; Machiavellianism; and psychopathy — lack of empathy, self-interest, and indifference to morality.
When you have no conscience, no morals, no humanity, nothing matters. For centuries men have enslaved other men, murdered and butchered them with no justice. They are surrounded by darkness, injustice, diabolism — ungodly, they worship another deity.
When genocide is on the table, the aggressors do not view the victims as people like them, they are the “others”. This is a powerful concept which propaganda reinforces, becoming “an echo chamber which becomes a very strong and dangerous distinction”. Memories of Rwanda make the heart bleed.
Even in “cannibalism”, those who partake in it eat people who are outsiders, never members of the group.
After the world wars of the 20th century, a handful of genocides occurred in every continent, unwilling to break the rhythm of the habitual killing. Does it matter that what evil men do is inherent?
Often overlooked, narcissism is an evil behaviour that should matter. The tools that narcissists use are not devised by human intelligence, but by the preternatural. Think of the evil eye, the darkness that is visible in their eyes — if they commit suicide by one, they are capable of suicide for the masses.
The carnage in the Gaza strip did not happen accidentally. It was a deliberate and calculated effort to kill, as it did in WWII, as it did in Hiroshima, as it is now. Has it diminished the US as a country? No social media, no television, no instant streaming like we have now. No one can escape the skeletal queues heading for food distribution centres, only to be shot before they reach their destinations. They seared the hearts of every human on this planet, except for the inhumane among us.
There must be a sound rationale why the West ignores the mass atrocities unless they have a compelling reason that these victims are closer to animals than humans. “Social Darwinism” must be on the rise. This theory interprets Darwin’s work as the “survival of the fittest.”
Some believe this theory, most object to it, but it exists in certain communities, eroding our culture’s respect for human life. In Israel they are convinced that they are “chosen”, the rest are sub-human, justified to kill.
Hollywood has applied this theory to certain races as inferior, like African-Americans, native Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabs, among others. Believe it or not, at one time in their history Jews were depicted as villains, evil, and inferior. Now that the table has turned, Jews are the victims, regardless of Shylock and company.
Within months Israel has killed 67,500 Palestinians, thousands are under the rubble. The evil sit in secured, luxurious chambers as they smile, while the killings continue.
Men in history are natural killers. While the name Hitler comes to mind, because of the Jewish propaganda of six million deaths, other men have surpassed him by far. Stalin has killed more Jews residing in the Soviet Union than Hitler. A rough estimate stands at 30 million deaths. The magnitude of the Cambodian Genocide led by Pol Pot wipes out 25 per cent of the population.
They kill humans, not chicken. They all kill and continue to kill. Human history is littered with stories of barbarity, brutality, and war.
Our technology allows us to witness the savagery of the beast in us. Nothing pales into near insignificance as does the sheer evil of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Evil men exist. Is it free will or is it human nature which tends to be evil?
Is it easier to do evil than to do good? We fervently hope not.
“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
* A version of this article appears in print in the 7 August, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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