I suppose the common consensus seems to involve some of these: - It is partly in our heads / rose tinted specs / things are actually getting better / media rep

I suppose the common consensus seems to involve some of these: - It is partly in our heads / rose tinted specs / things are actually getting better / media reports on bad things more than good - The system favours the unethical (it is easier to make it to the top of government if you are less ethical - or at least, less idealistic) - Being ethical in general has a cost (you do everything that your competitors do, + also an ethical thing on top, which adds an extra cost and makes you less 'competitive') - Maybe some of the things we see are just pragmatism, not evil (not the things you mention of course, but in general people may see the things they are doing as a consequentialist move). - They may think they are the lesser of two evils, or otherwise justify their actions - Differing views (You might see it as evil and they think it's good. Most people wake up with some kind of 'good intentions', they just are not good intentions in our view) - Difference in 'individualism vs collectivism' values. Some people just think that the sacrifice is worth it for some supposed common good. - People that are power hungry, are more likely to go after that power. Power hungry does not positively correlate with morals, or at least diverts attention away from morals. - “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” and all that - Idealists possibly get into power only to find that it's different on the inside. The 'grey hair effect' - Young bright anti-war meritocratic PM gets into office, sees something we don't, gets disollusioned or 'pragmatic', ends up committing to several wars. - They don't see what they have done / they don't get the full impact delivered to them / they have a skewed picture of what's happened - They don't control their generals as well as they thought - Racism and other hate/fear - Tragedy of the commons + a single person can't change the direction of the behemoth - It gets funding from other nation states / actors that gain from the events - The person may think that life is a zero-sum game, and they have to take from others rather than thinking synergy & cooperation would work - etc.