Brinkmanship vs Statesmanship: Avoiding the slippery slope to war, violence

For many decades, psychologists have tried to answer this question: What makes a regular 'next door neighbour' transform into a rapacious demon and kill without mercy or remorse?

War and violence in any form, are bad for several reasons, but most reprehensible of them is the absolute degeneration of qualities that differentiate humans from animals. Empathy, compassion, kindness and such traits which facilitated human collaboration to create the world we know, is replaced with behaviour associated with feral animals. Ordinary, law-abiding, God-fearing family men go on a merciless rampage, plundering, raping and killing. We read about mobs lynching a mentally challenged victim, or a police officer brutally raping and slaughtering a child and wonder – who are these people? Are they even human?

The shocking answer is –