"Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" by Hannah Arendt (1963)

Removed from historical context, the idea of Nazism seems absurd and implausible. Yet abstract ideas such as this---serving no one's interest---do take on lives of their own. Humans become these ideas' bewildered carriers and victims. Like a virus, the idea cares about its carrier only in so far as the carrier's well-being is conducive to the idea's propagation. Uncritical attachment to abstract ideals such as duty, honour, loyalty, and consistency turn humans into obliging carriers.

Resistance to viral ideas comes from critical reasoning and the assertion of self-interest. Such behaviour flourishes in markets and democracies. Under these regimes, an idea must benefit sufficiently many individuals in order to survive.

To endorse markets and democracies is to endorse a particular moral standard. Markets kill by starving the poor. Such deaths are deemed to be more moral than deaths by a committee. This is presumably so because the impoverished have little to offer not just to the few and possibly prejudiced members of the committee, but to anyone in the inclusive, anonymous market. Democracies kill, for instance, by imposing trade restrictions, by popular will. Such restrictions are deemed to be moral because they benefit the special interests whose lives---as viewed by the group defining morality---are worth more than the lives of sufferers. The incidence of markets and democracies influence---and are influenced by---the prevailing moral norms.

Extinction through evolution is deemed to be more moral than extinction through revolution. This is so due to the society's reluctance to reward momentary superiority in violence. Evolution aggregates the decisions of many, in a variety of environments, and over time.

The desire to change the world is an instinct, related to the desire to seek a better place. Artists and mathematicians create realities that do not interfere with others' realities. Most others' sought realities do conflict.

This conflict admits at least three resolutions: (i) individuals can sort into homogeneous communities with a shared view of reality (e.g., artists' colonies); (ii) individuals can seek seclusion in suburban units, and (iii) individuals can live in high-density, urban environments, with multiple realities intertwined, and tolerate others' realities.

It may be a crime to support an inferior institution. One may be held responsible even if (ex-post) non-pivotal. The rationale is to avoid coordination on inferior outcomes.