Dangerous when organized

There are five things that are more dangerous when organized: crime, violence, greed, irrationality, and selfishness. Organized crime is the mafia; organized violence is the military; organized greed is the corporation; organized irrationality is the church, organized selfishness is the nation.

The danger of organization in each of these cases is acceptance and multiplication. In the context of individual action, all of these tendencies are recognized as wrong or at least problematic. In the context of an organization, the pattern of "people do as others do" (conformity) comes into play. Behavior is no longer questioned, but protected and encouraged by the institution. The institution undermines individual self-criticism.

The danger of multiplication is committing otherwise reprehensible acts on a large scale. Wrong, multiplied, should demand outrage, multiplied, but it rarely does. For example, violence is a taboo for virtually anyone. Whole news cycles are devoted to the outrage of a single, scandalous murder. But violence on a massive scale by the (own) military — this applies to any nation — is actively justified, not only by those involved, but instinctively by large sections of society who consider the military part of the larger institution of "nation".

The individual act is considered a matter of debate, but if organized and multiplied, it can count on significant protection from critique within the institution. This leads to further acceptance and multiplication of the next act.