Beyond Good and Evil

A fellow blogger (hi, Peter) asked me to explain "some people's complete and total inhumanity" in light of my assertion, below, that nobody does anything without what they think of as a good reason.
Time to trot out the Kohlberg.

Lawrence Kohlberg elaborated on Jean Piaget's work and came up with a progression of moral development. He posits six levels of moral thinking. Very briefly, they look like this:

STAGE 1: "Right" behaviour is whatever doesn't get me punished.
STAGE 2: "Right" behaviour is about getting my needs satisfied, but "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine".

STAGE 3: "Right" behaviour is what gains me the approval of others.
STAGE 4: "Right" behaviour is in accordance with the law and entails obligations of duty towards society.

STAGE 5: "Right" behaviour is what is in the best interest of my society--even if its laws say otherwise.
STAGE 6: "Right" behaviour is universal and always comes from a place of love and respect for all things.

Most adults settle somewhere around the middle, in stage 3 or 4. Relatively few reach stage 5, and Kohlberg had some tentative living candidates for stage 6, but in the end decided that only such figures as Jesus, the Buddha, and Mahatma Gandhi qualified.

Later research convinced Kohlberg there was a Level Zero. Level Zeros act purely for their own pleasure. Punishment, or the threat of it, is not a deterrent. He estimated that one to two percent of the population fit this definition: commonly known as psychotics, they are more accurately described as sociopaths.

These are the people who exemplify "complete and total inhumanity". And there's no known cure for them, short of death.

This goes back to what I was saying about people's reasons for doing things. The Level Zero personality has, in his mind, just as valid a reason for murdering as the Level Six has, in hers, for laying down her life to save a stranger's. Perception is everything.

I think it vitally important not to judge someone based on their moral stage--do you criticize a
baby for lacking the maturity of a grandfather, or an acorn for lacking the stature of an oak?
The "sins" committed by those below Level Six are not transgressions against God; they are mistakes. Granted, some mistakes are pretty big. But they're every one of them borne out of some degree of primitive thinking.
Do you punish a mistake? Hell, no! You correct it.

The exception to the above--as he is to so many things--is the Level Zero. Such sociopaths are actually incapable of understanding societal conventions of right and wrong. Since punishment has no real affect--though many sociopaths will swear quite convincingly that it does--the first obligation is to protect society. In my spiritually immature moments, I tend to favour killing these people. It is possible, though not likely, that someone will come up with a cure for amoral behaviour that doesn't involve lethal injection...so by all means keep 'em locked up if you feel squeamish about state-sanctioned murder...just make sure you have a lot of locks.

Of course, not all Level Zeroes go around butchering bodies and raping little children. I have a feeling some of the sociopaths of the world have risen to great heights as heads of corporations...