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Alan Jacobs on Doing Bad Things

Original Sin: A Cultural History (HarperOne: April 28, 2009), pp. xiv-xv.

Any moderately perceptive and reasonably honest observer of humanity has to acknowledge that we are remarkably prone to doing bad things — and, more disturbingly, things we acknowledge to be wrong. And when we add to this calculus the deeds we insist are justified even when the unanimous testimony of our friends and neighbors condemns us — well, the picture is anything but pretty.