maladaptive consequences. Brain imaging studies show that different circuits turn on when we lie about long held personal stories as opposed to lies about in-the-moment situations. When we distort reality, either omitting information or twisting it to create a false belief, we have to inhibit the way things are to create an illusion of the way we wish them to be. In each case, there is conflict between one version of reality and another. In each case, the electrical and chemical choreography of the brain recruits its braking mechanism, stifling one piece of knowledge in the service of lifting another to the surface of our lips. We perfect this capacity over the course of development. Some are born lacking this capacity. Others have a system that is out of control, unable to distinguish truths from falsehoods. Somewhere along this spectrum are healthy members of society who have the potential to justify themselves and a society of willing listeners about the importance of becoming willing executioners, a phrase coined by the historian Daniel Goldhagen to describe Germans involved in the Holocaust. Desire + Denial. We all carry out this sum easily, often automatically and unconsciously. When we are pushed by a desire to eliminate others or to achieve some other goal, we call on denial to justify both extraordinary means and exceptional ends. We convince ourselves that we are morally in the right and that extermination or manipulation are our only options. We convince ourselves that the other is an object or animal, emotionally inert or unrecognizable. We shrink our moral circle, creating a culture of indifference. We convince ourselves through self-deception that the other is a threat. When we feel threatened, we raise our hackles in self-defense. When self-defense steps forward it recruits violence, justified by the belief that fighting back is not only right, but obligatory. Once violence starts, supported by a moral imperative, uncontrollable escalation follows, l