King Leopold's Ghost: Where There Aren't No Ten Commandments

One quote that I thought was particularly interesting was when Primo Levi said, "monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions" (pg 121). I thought this was extremely interesting, not only when applied to King Leopold and the Congo, but especially how it can be applied to many historical events. I had never thought about many events in history this way or realized how true the statement was, at least in my opinion. Different aspects of the Europeans in the Congo could be applied to this, such as the violence that was used to create a sense of superiority over the Africans, as well as why they went to the Congo in the first place. They separated themselves from the acts we would see as horrendous in modern day society, and saw it as normal. Hochschild compares these feelings to those of the Nazis, as well as the Soviet gulag.  I think that looking at many events through the ideas of this quote would give a different perspective and an interesting aspect.