The Lucifer Principle

If we ever save ourselves from the scourge of mass violence, it will be through the efforts of millions of minds, networked together in the collaborative processes of science, philosophy, and movements for social change. In short, only a group effort can save us from the sporadic insanities of the group.

Harvard psychologist Daniel Goleman, paraphrasing Nietzsche, says, “Madness . . . is the exception in individuals, but the rule in groups.

We must build a picture of the human soul that works. Not a romantic vision that Nature will take us in her arms and save us from ourselves, but a recognition that the enemy is within us and that Nature has placed it there.

from our best qualities come our worst. From our urge to pull together comes our tendency to tear each other apart. From our devotion to a higher good comes our propensity to the foulest atrocities. From our commitment to ideals comes our excuse to hate. Since the beginning of history, we have been blinded by evil’s ability to don a selfless disguise. We have failed to see that our finest qualities often lead us to the actions we most abhor—murder, torture, genocide, and war

We do strive as individuals, but we are also part of something larger than ourselves, with a complex physiology and mental life that we carry out but only dimly understand.