There is a fourth leg to this tripod, and it is one that has appealed to student-age people from time immemorial. It is simply that The Cause, whatever it is, offers absolution for committing acts that would otherwise be forbidden, specifically acts of violence, brutality, and sadism. There is a certain catharsis in burning out a store, for example, and blaming the consequences on someone else provides a sense of liberation from them. The perpetrators will be moving on, after all; the residents will do the suffering.
Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss his latest book, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation (Basic Book, 2024), which was released on May 7th. More particularly, they cover the historical connection between annihilation and genocide, how we should interpret the past through today’s moral standards, genocides in the present, and the likelihood of World War III.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMFRC5RGFG8