Years and years ago I watched “Stepford Wives” (the
original version) while I was studying Fascism for my doctorate. The line from the film that has stayed with
me down the years is; “Because we can.” This is what the men of Stepford say to Joanne, the lead character when
she asks why they are destroying their womenfolk.
Back then, the answer struck me as both simple and
profound. It still does. It held true as true for acts of collective
violence as it did for individual acts of violence. Perpetrators did it because they could.