From Robert Stepan
Alan Page Fiske and Tage Shakti Rai argue that most violence arises from morality, not a lack of it (29 November, p 30).
But they omit to say anything about state violence, which is also often driven by ostensibly moral reasons. The moral justifications for state violence are usually concocted with great efforts expended to sell the fiction.
I wonder if the authors have considered whether the individual’s moral justifications for violence might arise similarly? Recent work has demonstrated the brains ability to rationalise almost anything, and without any conscious awareness of the wild mental gymnastics involved.
Canyon Lake, Texas, US
