Not Hatred, Something Worse

'Blood on his hands, hatred in his eyes' shouts the headline on today's Daily Mail front page, over a picture of one of the two Islamist killers who butchered a soldier on the South circular road in Woolwich yesterday. A good headline, but belied by the picture - there's no hatred in his eyes; there's nothing at all, really. It looks like what psychologists call blunted affect. As far as this guy was concerned, as he stood there with a meat cleaver in his hand, talking calmly to a passerby, he'd just been doing a job, and was simply explaining the situation, as if he were apologising for a roadworks. That is the scary thing - though perhaps it should not surprise us. Most of the perpetrators of such horrific acts in history have no doubt gone about their work in just such a businesslike spirit.