A query for all...

[peter_gibbons]

The juniors I'm teaching are reading Lord of the Flies, and I was thinking that as an interesting discussion to have with them, we could talk about instances when people showed that they are, at heart, immoral like the book shows. I also want counter-examples. To frame this discussion in a thought-provoking way that any of the students can access

Comments

[teniralc2]

well, not to be obvious, but there is the whole Holocaust thing... Hitler may have been a complete nut-job, but I do not believe his followers can all claim the insanity defense. Specifically terrible I think would be the use of human beings used for medical research - anything from purposely injecting them with diseases to study how long they take to die under differing circumstances to freezing and thawing subjects to better understand hypothermia

[emtplatypus]

I'm pretty much at a loss for trying to come up with anything, but the one example that did cross my mind for the cruelty list - on account of Sara's reply - would be the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s.

[emtplatypus]

Another possibility for the cruelty list just occurred to me - this one dealing with individuals (two murderers): the Dartmouth murders, in which two well-to-do students plot a series of murders (viciously killing one couple and thankfully no one else) because conventional life wasn't as exciting.

Sara raises an interesting point about the terms we assign to cruelty or kindness dependent upon those who commit the acts. I think the Dartmouth murders are one clear example of cruelty committed by individuals who appear by no means to possess any mental deficiencies.

[teniralc2]

yeesh. Very Lopold and Loeb and "Rope". Is a God Complex considered to be a mental deficiency?