Can An Evil Man Be A Decent Person?
Wonder Cabinet
Wonder Cabinet Productions
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2018
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How can someone be a monster — a brutal dictator, a mass murderer, a serial killer — and up close seem like a decent, caring person? What happens when you find yourself liking someone who’s done terrible things? The American Guards Who Kept Saddam Hussein Safe Until His Execution; Paul Beatty on "The Nazi and the Barber"; What Can Americans Learn from a Norwegian Massacre?; Your Archenemy Turned Out To Be a Hero. Now What?; Can Literature Make You More Empathetic? ; Michael Tisserand on “My Friend Dahmer”.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's to the best of our knowledge from PRX. |
| 0:06.3 | Picture this. You're in the Army, 22 years old, you're sent to Iraq, and assigned to guard Saddam Hussein, sitting alone in a cell with him for hours, months. |
| 0:21.2 | What did you guys talk about? |
| 0:23.3 | We would reminisce and, I don't know, we would pass the time. |
| 0:26.9 | He was passing his time and we were passing ours. |
| 0:29.9 | He never talked to us about the evil stuff that he did. |
| 0:34.3 | I got the vibe and this is just me, that he was almost sorry. |
| 0:38.6 | Do you think he cared about you? |
| 0:40.6 | If something would have happened and we would get overrun, |
| 0:45.4 | I always thought that he would show mercy on me. |
| 0:50.8 | I'm Anne Strange Champs. |
| 0:52.1 | This hour, empathy for monsters. |
| 1:09.3 | It's to the best of our knowledge. |
| 1:11.2 | I'm And Strange Champs. |
| 1:12.5 | What is it like to care about someone bad, someone evil? |
| 1:17.9 | You know, I almost remember that day like it was yesterday. |
| 1:20.8 | It replays in my mind a lot. |
| 1:35.3 | I was on shift that night. We got the call over the radio. |
| 1:37.3 | It was time to wake him up. |
| 1:42.3 | So I stood there and watched him get ready and fix his hair, put his suit on, put his watch on. |
| 1:49.0 | He got dressed to the nine as best as he could. |
| 1:53.0 | And we all knew that it was coming close. |
... |
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