Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

869 Pages·1999·1.94 MB·English

by  Roy F. Baumeister

title: Evil: Inside Human Cruelty and Violence
author: Baumeister, Roy F.
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isbn10 | asin: 0716735679
print isbn13: 9780716735670
ebook isbn13: 9780585374680
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Page i
Evil
Inside Human Cruelty and Violence
Roy F. Baumeister
Page ii
Interior Design: Victoria Tomaselli
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Baumeister, Roy F.
Evil :inside human cruelty and violence / Roy F. Baumeister.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7167-2902-4
ISBN 0-7167-3567-9(pbk.)
1. Good and evil--Psychological aspects. I Title.
BF789.E94B38 1996
96-41940 155.2'32--dc20 CIP
© 1997 by W.H. Freeman and Company
No part of this book maybe reproduceed by any mechanical,
photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic
recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or
otherwise copied for public or private use, without written permisson
from the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
First printing 1999
Page iii
CONTENTS
Foreword v
Preface viii
Chapter 1 1
The Question of Evil, and the Answers
Part I 31
Image and Reality
Chapter 2 33
Victims and Perpetrators
Chapler 3 60
The Myth of Pure Evil
Part II 97
The Four Roots of Evil
Chapter 4 99
Greed, Lust, Ambition: Evil As a Means to an End
Chapter 5 128
Egotism and Revenge
Chapter 6 169
True Believers and Idealists
Chapter 7 203
Can Evil Be Fun? The Joy of Hurting
Part III 249
How They Do It
Chapter 8 251
Crossing the Line: How Evil Starts
Chapter 9 282
How Evil Grows and Spreads
Chapter 10 305
Dealing with Guilt
Chapter 11 343
Ambivalence and Fellow Travelers
Part IV 373
Conclusion
Chapter 12 375
Why Is There Evil?
Notes 389
Index 419
Page v
FOREWORD
When I first saw Professor Baumeister's book in a bookstore, I was
immediately attracted to it. I knew I'd be in for a treata fresh approach
to an overworked but underdeveloped problem. When I read his
volume from cover to cover I thought "Here is a person who can
present an original approach to complex concepts in language that the
average curious reader, as well as the scholar, can understand and
enjoy."
More-or-less by coincidence, Roy Baumeister and I have written
books on a topic that affects every person on the planet: "man's
inhumanity to man." Although our approaches overlap a good deal,
they also compliment each other. Here I will expand a bit on
Baumeister's ideas, to provide a broader context for the readers of this
excellent book.
In trying to understand a topic as broad and complicated as anger,
hostility, and violence, it is important to realize that there are different
levels of analysis. To comprehend these phenomena more fully, the
reader or scholar needs to have not only a grasp of these levels but
also some idea of how they interact with one another. Take the
example of the causation of war. This can be analyzed from the
standpoint of the supranational system (competition, the security
dilemma, balance of power) leading to preemptive strikes by a
threatened or expansionist state. The precipitation of war can be
analyzed in terms of individual states with their own idiosyncratic
histories, attitudes and economics, social, and military power. Or the
analysis can be directed to the psychology of the political elite with
their own drives for power and prestige and the populace with its
loyalty and dreams of glory.
Professor Baumeister has succeeded admirably in applying the tools
of social psychology and history to understand the causes of evil
behavior. My approach has focused more narrowly on the minds of
those who make the decisions to wage war and of those who follow.
In many wars, the decision-makers make what they consider rational
choices in moving toward or avoiding armed conflict. Their
followerswho make the sacrificesare stirred by the highly charged,
emotionalized beliefs, group empathy, and heroism that Baumeister
describes (these positive merits fade in time when disillusionment
replaces the illusions). The critical factor is their unlimited capacity to
see the opposition as the Enemy, as all bad, and their own national
state as righteous and all good. The various levels interact with one
another. The chaotic supranational system, say, produces insecurity
among the states. This leads the governments to
Page vi
engage in an arms race. The apparent threat to the national state filters
down to the populace, who rally round the flag to protect the national
honor. The interaction among the levels can go in both directions.
Just before the Spanish American War there was a great instability in
the crumbling Spanish Empire. The rebellions, especially the
suppression of the rebels in Cuba and in the Philippines, captured the
imagination and sympathy of the American people. The populace and
its representatives in Congress perceived the Spanish as the enemy,
the Cubans and the Filipinos as the vulnerable underdogs, and the
Americans as the champions of the oppressed. Thus, the people, as a
result of their images, brought pressure on a reluctant President
McKinley to go to war. The vivid imagery of the masses prevailed
over the judgment of the statesmen.
In examining violent behavior it is also important to make a
distinction between the predisposition to violence and the
precipitation of violence. An appreciation of the difference can lead to
quite different intervention strategies.
Consider domestic violence in terms of these two approaches. From
the standpoint of predisposition, the predominant culture or
community values may present the image of the macho male and the
subservient female. This value may be translated into bold beliefs,
perhaps that the wife should accede to her husband's judgment and
wishes. At the level of the family of origin, the beliefs communicated
by the interaction between the parents may either reinforce or
undermine this belief. Also the behavior of the father may
communicate the notion that violence is the only way to silence a
scolding wife. This belief may also originate with or be reinforced by
the peer group. The next level is the adversarial relationship of
husband and wife. A history of escalating arguments, increasing
tension, verbal arguments and threats generally provides the prelude
to physical violence. At the level of the violent husband, a number of
beliefs (many filtered down from higher levels) may converge to
"prepare" him for violent action. Among these: 1. A wife who
continually pesters her husband is a shrew 2. Nagging at her husband
is a sign of disregard 3. The only way to shut her up is to punch her in
the mouth; and at a less conscious level, 4. "If I let her get away with
it, I'm less of a man."
The precipitation of an assault may be related to "higher level" events
such as economic instability leading to job insecurity leading to a
greater sense of vulnerability, worry, and anxiety. Overdosing on
alcohol to salve the anxiety, coupled with one more argument, may
activate all the aforementioned beliefs and thus precipitate the man
beating his wife.
Page vii
Labels like Evil and the Enemy are actually abstractions (which is the
reason that I capitalize the first letters of these words). Assaulters,
offenders, batterers, crusaders, perpetrators conjure up images of Evil
and the Enemy they then project onto their opponent or
antagonistswho are often weak and vulnerable. As Professor
Baumeister points out: whoever opposes you or blocks your own good
work is an Enemy of the Good and is therefore Evil.
Professor Baumeister also focuses sharply on the major causes of
violence and cruelty, which he neatly organizes into three categories.
The first is the desire for material gain (I would also include the lust
for power and self-aggrandizement in this category). This
instrumental cause has driven the great conquerors of history from
Cyrus the Great to Hitler. Perhaps the most original of his ideas
involves the following notion: When someone with an overblown
sense of self-worth fears a threat to his self-esteem, a kind of reflexive
hostility can result: "Stop the threat before it inflicts damage." The
person feels diminished in some way (rejected, devalued, exploited)
and is driven to punish the offender. Examples range from a husband
who beats his wife because she criticizes him, to a monarch like Louis
Napoleon who was insulted by a note contrived by Bismarck and in
retaliation declared war on Prussia. The third source of violence is
idealism and utopianism, with examples that range from the lone
anarchist or militant with a bomb, to religious movements like the
Crusades, to genocides like the Holocaust, to mass murders in Mao's
China, Stalin's Soviet Union, and Pol Pot's Cambodia.
This book is exciting and presents many insights into human behavior
at individual and collective levels. It also helps to dispel many myths,
such as the notion that violence stems from low self-esteem. It points
up, instead, the importance of the vulnerable self-image. Evil will not
only enrich the minds of the general reader and the scholar but also
open up numerous channels of inquiry for the specialist.