Ordinary people can do terrible things to other human beings?

I am just appalled at how decent people, if taught badly in their formative years, can be indoctrinated that bad things are right and proper. There are a lot of people about with pretty extreme views on different subjects...and once the human gets into a crowd our herd instinct tends (for most of us!) to take over - it is a hard-wired survival instinct. Put together enough people with an extreme view as to have some actual power and you have an automatic recipe for disaster.

We should not let this triumph

Ordinary people can do terrible things to other human beings?anti virus software

The third reich was a prime example..

A shameful blot on humanity..

Ordinary people can do terrible things to other human beings?aurora

Of course you are right but it is even happening here on yahoo. There are a pack of people who want to crucify the Mcaans without any reason except in their own minds. I used to think that lynch mobs were gone and forgotten. But reading some of their remarks make me wonder. It seems that having a child abducted is now a crime.
hmmm food for thought...good to know. yours was a statement rather than a question. i tend to agree -- partially, depending on the many circumstances. it is hard to generalize -- think about it again. hope it helps.ps. usually it is leaders that do the bad things..and they are not simple people..think hitler, attila, stalin, and a host of others...currunt day burma leader etc.
And how would you know if someone was taught badly in their ''formative'' years? And how exactly would you or anyone else know what is bad, right or proper? Other than the usual, killing, raping robbing etc.= bad. Freindly, helpful, charitable etc..=good. Humans are not herd animals, we are not cows or horses, or gazelles etc. We are a family based species, that form communities. The only hard wired survival instinct left in humans is fight or flight. The majority of people couldn't survive without their grocery stores and cosy homes. Personally I don't want to be near people, that's why I live way out in the country, because there are no people...aka dumb as sess.
It is all too easy to dehumanize our adversaries. We are all guilty of doing this in some form or another. Bunching folks into groups, and hanging a label on them. We have all used racial slurs, for example, bar none.....now be honest.