Now this is not about my divorce, because of course if it is claimed in a legal document that I am unreasonable then of course I must be, as legal documents are both serious and truthful and would never include the slightest stench of lies or falsity. They are, of course, as serious and binding as let us say for example, wedding vows and should be treated in exactly the same fashion as "In sickness and in Health" should be.

No, this post is about Don McCullin's autobiography which is entitled 'Unreasonable Behaviour' and bears no relation to my current, and no doubt, entirely deserved predicament.
If you don't know, Don McCullin is a photographer most famous for his pictures of war but also of the poor and destitute of this country as well as more recently, beautiful landscapes of Somerset and India.

In his autobiography he describes how sldiers prepare themselves when they know they are going to do something appalling like shoot their prisoners.

I had learned an awful new fact about war and killing - that people build themselves up for an atrocity. They suppress their humanity by humiliating, torturing,tormenting their victims first. And the victims wait to be killed.

He also describes how the soldiers build each other up in order to do this. By gaining their cronies support they help to justify themselves in what they are about to do and by doing this no longer have to worry about whether what they are doing is right or wrong. By the time they are ready to carry out their atrocity they are convinced that their victims actually deserve their fate.

I wonder how well this applies to lesser, but still awful acts?

If you would like to read the book, and I do recommend it, then you can get it on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unreasonable-Behaviour-Autobiography-Don-McCullin/dp/0099437767/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209711228&sr=8-2