Reading Roy Baumeister's description of "the myth of pure evil" in The Meanings of Life has helped me to better understand the "war on terror". The myth of pure evil is a form of naive realism under which the evil doer's sole motive is to commit evil (because most people equate understanding and acceptance, and fear that trying to understand a terrorist's motives might open the door to justifying those motives). One essential feature of the myth of pure evil is that the evil comes from outside and is associated with a group or force that attacks "our" group, a bias which governments everywhere have become adept at exploiting. The myth persists in part because people love battles between good and evil (for evidence, one need look no further than Hollywood, or their local church). And the myth resists attack because if you question the myth, you are assumed to be in league with evil (e.g. if any readers think I'm defending terrorism then they are simultaneously missing and making my point). People often feel the need to explain violence and cruelty through the myth of pure evil, but such an oversimplification stands in the way of understanding and working toward a solution.