Elisabeth, if it were so easy to know evil. All of us have evil in us, some more, some less. I think it develops one way or another during our lives. We choose with our tiny "free will" which way to go, and in doing so, we lend strength to different parts of our selves.
In thinking of things as pure evil, we miss the insidious nature of evil. There are, of course, psychopathic personalities, which in most opinions are pretty evil, certainly, they are not compassionate people. It´s all about themselves and what they desire.
Hitler was a very sick man, He was reputed to have syphllis, parkinsons, aspergers, schitzophrenia, amphetime addict and a whole litany of health and personality problems, but I don´t think he was actually a psychopath. He is not responsible for all that is attributed to him, rather it was a collective of social & economic issues that were the cause of all those horrors. It never is just one person or cause, it´s always like several streams running into a river and the matter of opportunity.
I think all the hideous games of murder and mayhem that are taken so lightly pattern our minds to be more accepting of things. In a personality that is more susceptible, (like they encourage and promote them to do awful things. They feel they have some acceptance, they are doing what others would have liked to do.
When and if something is seen as so unacceptable as to be unthinkable, if they are considered "uncool" and they would be totally socially ostracized, there is less chance they will act on the impulses.
I understand your point alameda, but I can not agree. The individuals who committed these crimes where by in large mentally ill. As far as nobody being pure evil, I strongly disagree. Hitler was responsible for millions of deaths (including the deaths of the German soldiers he sacrificed for his own ambitions). Any kindness he showed was to further the facade and to mask his desire for ultimate power. He was a sociopath...not capable of REAL genuine kindness unless it suited his purpose. He did not play video games either. In fact, most of the most prolific and horrifying people in history did not. I am not advocating violent games but I think they are a much smaller factor in these cases than is made out.
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