EVILICIOUS: Cruelty = Desire + Denial Read Online Free PDF Page A

numerous books about evil, most written by philosophers, theologians, historians, political scientists, and legal scholars. The following are books about evil written by scientists. I have learned a great deal from them, and many of their ideas powerfully enrich the pages between these covers:
    Baumeister, R. F. (1997).
Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty
. New York: W. H. Freeman.
    Baron-Cohen, S. (2011).
The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty
. New York: Basic Books.
    Oakley, B. (2007).
Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend
. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
    Staub, E. (2010).
Overcoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict, and Terrorism.
New York: Oxford University Press.
    Stone, M. H. (2009).
The Anatomy of Evil
. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
    Zimbardo, P. (2007).
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
. New York: Random House.
    • For a comprehensive discussion of evil by philosophers and historians, with an eye to the relevant science, see:
    Kekes, J. (2007).
The Roots of Evil
. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.
    Livingstone Smith, D. (2011)
Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others.
New York: St. Martin’s Press.
    McGinn, C. (1999).
Ethics, Evil and Fiction
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    Shermer, M. (2004).
The Science of Good and Evil.
New York: Henry Holt Inc.
    • On killing throughout history, see:
    Grossman, Lt. Col. D. (1995).
On Killing: The Psychological Costs of Learning to Kill in War and Society.
New York: Little, Brown.
    Wrangham, R.W. & Peterson, D. (1996).
Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Chapter 1:
    Runaway desire
    The desire of being believed, or the desire of persuading, of leading and directing other people, seems to be one of the strongest of all of our desires.
    – Adam Smith
    In 2003, Marwan Abu Ubeida (his pseudonym) started preparing for what he believed would be the happiest day of his life. He couldn’t imagine wanting or desiring anything else. His preparations involved intense physical and psychological training, including frequent prayers. When Marwan prayed, he asked for a blessing of his mission, purification of his soul, and the ability to reunite with his brothers in the afterlife. He also read historical accounts of the great martyrs of the past. These readings, he believed, would give him the strength to patiently wait for the day when he could act and satisfy his ultimate desire to die.
    Marwan was a Sunni Muslim jihadi in waiting, waiting for the green light to transform himself into a suicide bomber. All facets of his desire to die were clear. As captured by
Time
magazine correspondent Bobby Ghosh 10 , Marwan wanted to achieve his mission with perfection: “If I am lucky, my body will be vaporized. There won’t be anything left of me to bury.” He wanted to meet other suicide bombers in his afterlife: “We made a pact that we would meet in heaven.” He only wanted to harm Iraqi infidels and American soldiers: “I pray no innocent people are killed in my mission.” And he had no interest in being recognized by his fellow Iraqis: “The only person who matters is Allah.”
    Marwan is one of thousands of martyrs who, over the course of history, have sacrificed their lives in the name of a great cause. Their desires seem, in one way, pure: to support a set of sacred beliefs and values. And yet, the consequence of their selfless action is often excessive harm to innocent others. Because most of us can’t imagine decorating our bodies with dynamite, and then pressing the self-destruct button, we tend to think that suicide bombers are either uneducated, mentally deranged, or religious fanatics. Though some suicide bombers carry such resumes, many, including past and present members of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas are college educated, mentally healthy, and have no religious education. As