"We shouldn't forget that it is fun to kill people."
This is what a medical doctor who was taking my course as part of his advanced studies said to me and the other students one evening.
When I asked him if would like to elaborate, he declined. He had brought our attention to a fact that he thought we were overlooking in our discussion of medicine and murder, as in the Nazi doctors and others, and he was happy to leave it at that.
When I asked if any of the other students wanted to ask a question or make a comment, the room was silent. Too silent. So, after a pause, we restarted our discussion as though nothing unsual had been said.
I have often that of that doctor and what he said, especially in times like these when people on all sides of a dispute are shedding innocent blood and are reluctant to stop. I have concluded something similar to what he said but different:
"It can be (not "is") fun to kill people."
Psychopaths can enjoy killing people. So can those who are extremely frightened, angry or both. So can those who believe that their side is totally good and the other side is totally bad. So can those who become addicted to the adrenaline rush that killing living beings can prompt. So can those who believe that God told them to kill people. And yes, like the man in Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," there are those who can sing "I killed a man in Reno just to watch him die."
The doctor was almost right.