I tell my son this all the time. The path to evil begins by using other people. Once you view other human beings as objects to be used to moved around or avoided you open yourself to evil. We are called to love one another. As individuals. We are not merely called to seek the collective good of humanity. We are called to love and respect the individual human beings before us. That is much harder.

It is much more difficult to love an actual person than nurture a vague regard of collective humanity.

Andrew Klavan, the best selling author, movie maker, Christian, and humorist has some interesting points of view on this question and a great story about a popular mystery writer and the Peter Jackson film “Heavenly Creatures” that I had no idea about.

I think Klavan draws the line slightly differently from me but as always there’s a great deal of wisdom in what he says. I wonder where the line is drawn between moral blindness and evil.