Aloha Jules,

This post reminds me of the time I read Dr. Scott Peck's The People Of The Lie: Hope for Healing Human Evil (New-age). He posits three levels of evil:

1. ignorance - you simply have no clue. Social / cultural norms perpetuate this form of evil.

2. situational - you know your actions are less than positive - but - given your circumstances you believe you have no choice. Example: prison rape.

3. conscious duplicity - you know your actions are less than positive and purposefully cover them up with a public persona of being a good person. Example: leaders who later become known as prolific abusers (spouse, kids, sex, drugs, etc.)

Number 3 is the total mind fuckery.