On Fri, 25 Jul 1997, Mara Riley wrote:

> Hm.  Do you mean deliberate evil -- deliberate manipulation of other people
> for one's own good, even if you know that it harms them; or secondary evil
> -- simple selfishness, the inability to think beyond the simple sphere of
> 'me, my and mine'?

        In the non-fiction book "Ordinary Men" the men of the 81st police
batalion were told to exterminate unarmed human beings.  Jews.  The
police officers were also told that anyone who objected to this order was
free not to follow through, and that no consequences would happen.  In
fact, the order was more of a request for volunteers.
        One man, and only one, stepped forward immediatly.  Eight of his
peers followed when it was made clear that no punitive action would be
taken.  The rest of them gleefully slaughtered dozens of people that day
(and of the eight who declined, a few went back near the end and helped
with the killing).
        The reason for this?  Peer pressure, I guess.  Most people do not
care if it does not effect their friends and family.

        If the mechanism of peer pressure can get ordinary men, Poles
instead of Germans no less, to take human life with no more justification
than having the wrong last name, why wouldn't a great many people want to
keep people in a general state of shell-shocked ill health for money?

        In Europe, the witch-hunts left entire towns depopulated of women.
Those who were responsible may have been after land, but they may have
also believes that there were working for the greater good of God.  Many
people do evil in the name of good.  Evil is almost universally easier
than good if you can stifle that part of you that loaths to do evil
things.  And as I pointed out, peer pressure will be enough for most
people.

> None of the above, IMO, applies to the low-fat paradigm.  It's simply just
> such an all-pervasive weltverstandnis that it takes a sledge-hammer to
> budge people from that way of viewing things.

        Most people are repeating unverified second-hand info.  Very few
people I've asked can tell my WHY they know the earth is round beyond
"Everyone knows it" or "I learned it in school."  But let's target one
group, say Weight Watchers.  If they are keeping any records they would
know that their diet has about a 98% failure rate.  KNOW this.  But why
adverstise the fact?  Weight watchers sells hope.  It sells a pipedream.
It rips people off and leaves them fatter than when they first waddled
through their doors.  So far Gilchrist and Audette are the only people
with a diet who don't strike me as wanting to sell me self-hatred.