Wisdom from Satan (p24-p25)

(Setting:  Freeman, the protagonist, has accidentally stumbled into Hell, where he is confronted by Satan, who patiently explains to Freeman why some humans are unaware that they are destined for perdition.)

"Humans suffer from a stifling tribal instinct", explained Satan. "They behave like the mindless herds of animals that they haughtily profess superiority over. When the chief bull veers to the right, the rest of the cattle do likewise, without considering the consequence or the purpose. And so it is with your species. When the Head Humans veer to the left, the rest of you trudge behind like automatons, unaware that you are more likely heading for oblivion than the glory they promise. This means I don’t have to waste valuable time corrupting every human soul, which would be an impossible task. I simply have to corrupt your philosophical, political, and religious leaders. You uncalculating slugs will follow them into the eternal abyss, brainwashed through the media and willfully ignorant of the impending disaster until it has swallowed you whole."

Mephistopheles drew a long, hot breath, and then continued. "An excellent example is when I led the 20^th Century Germans into mass eternal damnation. I tempted a few powerful men like Albert Spear, Adolph Hitler, and Heinrich Himmler with polished apples. Predictably, they devoured them like frothing children eating gingerbread from the witch's house. The German herd surrendered their guns and followed along behind them, their souls corrupted by default and their tickets to my nightmare purchased with moral apathy. They fell into my abyss because of unquestioning subservience to vile and murderous political ideas. This happens because people are so easily convinced that they are significant only as a group, not as individuals. The purpose of life is defined for them as a social movement or a collective ideological struggle. Each man's life is unimportant compared to the greater good. In this view of life, thinking is dangerously egoist, futile, and seditious.

"That horrendous cacophony is the screaming of millions of tormented human souls who chose not to think while they were alive, believing that this absolved them of guilt in subsequent moral catastrophes. Tragically, they didn’t realize that mindless sheep are as guilty as the evil shepherd they choose to obey. Fortunately for me, humans don’t understand that the most grievous sin is choosing not to think apart from the herd. Religions and governments abhor the questioning individual mind, demanding faithful conformity to their chosen gospel instead, as if spirituality and wisdom were no more complex than the children’s game ‘Simon Says’. They preach that understanding is achieved through mystery rather than reason. This preoccupation with faith not only makes your leaders’ jobs easier, it makes my job easier too."