Posted on 06/04/2008 6:34:21 AM PDT by Renfield
Simon Montefiore performs the invaluable service of reminding us that a love for learning, charm, great erudition, a prodigious memory, a fine singing voice, a talent for oratory and a steady nerve are not incompatible with homicidal mania. The man with all these qualities held forth with artists like Babel, Akhmatova, Eisenstein, and Shostakovich; was the patron of Maxim Gorky and was a fan of Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. He had tremendous people skills; he knew when to flatter, compromise or wait. The man remembered as Josef Stalin, for whom "the solution to every human problem was death", knew how to wait.
The great monsters of the 20th Century were not, as some might imagine, always deeply hated men. That came later, when they lost or lost power. They were at the height of their careers celebrities, creatures of the crowd, idols of the youth. And if boasting of a connection to celebrity is the true measure of his brilliance, Stalin's star has little dimmed. Vladimir Putin's grandfather was chef to Josef Stalin, the man who killed more human beings than Adolf Hitler.
In a world where fame and celebrity attend those we are supposed to admire, the ultimate loser is the man who can't dance. George Bush, we are reliably informed by the media, has the IQ of a moron, though how he matriculated from Yale and Harvard or flew an F-106 will remain an unexplained mystery. Doubtless his father bribed the airplane to fly itself.....
(Excerpt) Read more at fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com ...
Satan was created the most beautiful of all the angels. Also the most vain. He deceives with “beauty,” or the traits that we call “glamorous.”
It’s ‘beauty’ is what makes evil so seductive.
If it appeared as vile and grotesque, no one would ever sin.
The vile and the grotesque appear ONLY human psychopathology … they are called insanity. Don’t believe it? Think of the monstrous crimes committed by serial killers and the insane. Acts of indescribably gruesome and atrocious brutality are committed by the insane who are not responsible for themselves.
I look at it the other way:
Typically, evil must seem beautiful or true, because it cannot disguise itself as good.
It’s only in time of true depravity that evil can become merely banal.
Thank you for this excellent post. The comments of readers below it are interesting as well.
A lot of serial killers are not insane at all. They simply lack any conscience. Serial killer Ted Bundy was intelligent and charming.
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