Analyzing and explaining evil may itself contribute to banalizing it

Evidence

Each human being has an immense capacity for evil. Each human being understands, a priori, perhaps not what is good, but certainly what is not. And if there is something that is not good, then there is something that is good. If the worst sin is the torment of others, merely for the sake of the suffering produced—then the good is whatever is diametrically opposed to that. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 600 (#complicates, via linked claim)

And if it is true that in the final stages of totalitarianism an absolute evil appears (absolute because it can no longer be deduced from humanly comprehensible motives), it is also true that without it we might never have known the truly radical nature of Evil. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 13 (#complicates, via linked claim)

A parent repeatedly batters an infant child because the child cries. We see from where the impetus to batter arises, but we simply cannot grant any sympathetic validity to the act arising out of the impetus. Again, a wildly disproportionate disregard for the humanity of the harmed individual seems indicated. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3871 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Theory’s proper object is evil and suppression, not the good; Calling terrorism transcendent evil blocks the worldly analysis needed to counter it — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1430; Alternate evil explanations work best when they are thinglike and palpable (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Understanding personal capacities for evil leads to moral development. #complicates (0.80) — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 600
• Absolute evil is evil detached from any humanly comprehensible motive #complicates (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 13
• We deny sympathetic validity even when we understand an evil act’s impetus #complicates (0.73) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3871