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The very substance of violent action
 is ruled by the means-end category,
whose chief characteristic, if applied
to human affairs, has always been
that the end is in danger of being
 overwhelmed by the means it justifies
and which are needed to reach it.
                   Hannah Arendt
              On Violence

Extreme Selfishness in Criminals

Believe it or not, you already know what the criminal is and what motivates him, you see it all the time in minor forms. What to most people is a minor character flaw is to criminals a major defining element of their personalities.

We often talk about extremes, but few people recognize them for what they really are. Extremes are everyday behavior, thoughts and ideas taken and magnified out of proportion. Furthermore, the normal checks and balances that keep these elements under control are either missing, turned off or intentionally abandoned.

Each day of your life, you encounter attitudes, behavior and ways of thinking that are annoying and selfish. Usually, however, these obnoxious people have a form of checks and balances that keep them somewhat in line with normal society. We tend to automatically assume these checks and balances are in place. This is the "social contract" that allows people to function and get along together in their day-to-day activities. We don't realize how ingrained and unconscious these rules of behavior and ways of thinking are. They temper our selfishness and prevent it from running amok. And in our daily lives, we rely on other people to have the same moderating influences.

What few people realize is that these checks and balances are missing with  the criminal or violent person. Nature abhors a vacuum. With this absence of counterbalancing influences, certain behavior flourishes and grows, taking up that empty space. What is apparent to a small degree in a normal person ends up being enormous in the criminal.

The magnitude and extremes to which a criminal is willing to go are unbelievable to most people. It is both shocking and unnerving when we encounter someone who doesn't follow these unstated rules about controlling one's selfishness. They simply cannot grasp it. It is like the child who was taken down to the shore to see a beached whale. Standing next to the whale, the child turns to his mother and asks, "Where's the whale mommy?" What we want to do here is help you see the whale.

Some people cannot see the connections of  day-to-day behavior to the extremes. They simply don't believe that the small, annoying conduct they encounter every day could grow become such extreme evil. While others, until they see the extremes, cannot recognize those same behavioral patterns in daily activities. When these people see the extreme, then they can recognize the smaller, more controlled version

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