Each mind is precious beyond measure. Only those of us who accept a naturalistic view of the world can understand what an astonishing thing a mind is, a thing of such power, such richness, such complexity.

Before I read up on psychopathy, I shared this view. I naively believed there was goodness within everyone, that a rough background could explain most atrocities. That no one was truly beyond redemption. Then I read Robert Hare, and realized I had been a wishful thinker; much like the religious.

There is nothing precious about a mind like Mao's, Stalin's, Pol Pot's, Hitler's, Idi Amin's, Breivik's, Ivan the terrible's etc. A mind 'designed' to deceive, to take advantage of every situation only to benefit oneself at the cost of others. There is nothing precious in that.