GoScienceEverything comments on ISIS Burns Jordanian Pilot Alive: In times of war, brutality rises out of the human psyche--war has always been accompanied by torture, rape, and murder, except in the most disciplined of militaries. Look around at a hundred civilized men, and ask yourself how civilized they would have been if they were raised as 13th-century Mongols or Vikings.
Finally, what makes ISIL's brutality so beyond anything we've seen in recent times?
Generally, groups embrace, and emphasize, what sets them apart. ISIL has been shocking successful--and its defining trait is its shocking brutality. Does it surprise us, then, that they emphasize their defining trait for as long as it brings them success? They're milking it for all it's worth.