Junk.

Editor,

Sometimes I think there is a gene for empathy and a certain proportion of the human race are born without one. Their unconscionable lying and stomping on vulnerable people who only want to live is beyond my comprehension. And yet there are actual living human beings in business and politics who are absolutely ruthless and utterly unmoved by the pain, destruction, and suffering they create.

One scene in "The Act of Killing" that sticks in my mind is when we go into the ridiculously kitsch home of one of the ruling criminals in Indonesia today, one who profited from the cold-blooded murder of a million people, and see the expensive yet irredeemably idiotic trinkets that fill his house.

Garbage in exchange for a million lives.

Someone famous said something once about obscenely rich people being known for their terrible taste. From what I've seen it's true. All their power, all their money, all their callous oblivion toward anything in life that actually does have value does nothing more than fill their worlds with useless, stupid junk.

I think they know there are more of us than there are of them, and that is why they work so hard to shut mouths that speak the truth and fill the masses' minds with lies.

Re: "The Moderates Who Lighted the Fuse" (10/4/2013)