Rationalizing cruelty, again

James Lewis's essay in which he argues that the ideology of fascism is largely a complex way of rationalizing a desire to see others suffer is both very interesting and incredibly naive. It's interesting because the point that our beliefs should not be taken at face value because they are often designed to be fronts for some unspoken desires isn't argued often enough. It's naive because it grossly underestimates the scope of this very phenomenon. For example, Lewis seems to believe that Americans are immune to the impulse of gratuitous cruelty. Naive doesn't even begin to describe such belief. For another example, Lewis concentrates on fringe or extremist beliefs (fascism, communism, Islamic fundamentalism etc.), not realizing that ideologies designed mainly to rationalize cruelty are (and always have been) very much part of mainstream. For instance, a lot of religion-based morality, or the way we think criminals should be punished, are really just sophisticated ways of allowing people to act on their sadistic impulses while still believing they're fundamentally good people ("C'mon, I'm only stoning him to death because it pleases God, not because I like stoning people to death!")