What We Get Wrong About Evil

This is interesting, but it doesn't go far enough.

Take the gang shooter. Within his (statistically, it's reasonable to assume male) framework, what he does is perfectly reasonable - moral, even. But within most moral frameworks, it's abhorrent.

There may be some value in realizing that "that could have been me". But there may be at least as much in realizing that I could have things that I think are perfectly reasonable that are actually morally abhorrent. It's not just that it could have been me. It's worse. It may be me.

So the problem is not just to see the evil other as human like us. The problem is to see the evil in ourselves. Then it's much easier to see the other as like us, because we see ourselves as like them.