Not knowing that you have a villain inside you, a hero, and a bystander is a lesson that everyone should learn.
What is the quote from Jingo, by Sir Terry Pratchett, to the effect of "when someone does something terrible, we want it to be one of Them, because if it isn't Them, then it is Us?"
âIt was because he wanted there to be conspirators. It was much better to imagine men in some smoky room somewhere, made mad and cynical by privilege and power, plotting over the brandy. You had to cling to this sort of image, because if you didnât then you might have to face the fact that bad things happened because ordinary people, the kind who brushed the dog and told their children bedtime stories, were capable of then going out and doing horrible things to other ordinary people. It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyoneâs fault. If it was Us, what did that make Me? After all, Iâm one of Us. I must be. Iâve certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. Weâre always one of Us. Itâs Them that do the bad things.â
Jingo. 1997. Pratchett, Terry. NY, London, and Ankh-Morpork: Harper-Collins. p. 205
