General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I just do not understand Paris [View all]Igel
(35,472 posts)You got the same kind of attitude among secularists and atheists in the late 1800s and into the 1900s.
Two parts:
1. A conviction that your way is the one true way and that everybody else, for their own good, must adopt it.
2. A conviction that causing them to adopt that one true way is, at least in part, your responsibility and obligation.
That may mean viewing the actions as revenge to stop something negative or coercion to force something "positive."
Either way, this is often "evil" because those doing these things are convinced that they are doing good, however they define it, and are acting for the good of their community or the good of mankind.
Religion is a common motive--"adopt my religion as the one true way" because "I'm doing God's will". Not always, to be sure. Baader-Meinhof, FARC, or SLA weren't exactly into theism. Nor were Pol Pot, the promulgators of the Cultural Revolution or the GULag system.