The good of humanity

Via Patrick Kurp Robert Conquest on a mindset relevant to both religious and secular fanatics:

The revolutionary believed it to be in the nature of things that dictatorship and terror are needed if the good of humanity is to be served, just as the Aztec priests believed themselves to be entirely justified in ripping the hearts out of thousands of victims, since had they not done so, the sun would have gone out, a far worse catastrophe for mankind. In either case, the means are acceptable, being inevitable....

Anecdotal Evidence: `The Sun Would Have Gone Out'