It is my belief that most films that begin with "American" in the title are bad ones. American Beauty, American Pie (all gazillion parts) and my least favourite: American Sniper. Set during the American occupation of Iraq, the movie's protagonist is (predictably) an American sniper. It is based on the story of Chris Kyle, an Iraq war veteran (and most likely a psychopath too). This movie was released in 2014. You might be wondering why I have brought it up now. I was reading Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem" the other day when a passage reminded me of the movie. "Hence the problem was how to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering. The trick used by Himmler – who apparently was rather strongly afflicted with these instinctive reactions himself - was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in ...