a blistering article, hard to disagree with the analysis or with the solution offered. However, the sheer mindlessness of the cruelty-conditioning is possibly the most worrying aspect of all in the world as it is evolving, thanks to “radical technologies” (see Adam Greenfield) We are all in danger of becoming robots,fed a diet of rubbish by the Great and Good, bemused by the material comforts of post-modern living. The class analysis of cruelty,and its gendering are fields for reflection and, perhaps, research. Historically, alongside the tyrants mentioned in the article, the aristocratic class has been the cruellest , with hangers-on among the most marginalised (Marxian “lumpenproletariat”) Men, in general,are crueller than women. Awareness of some of the basic predispositions to cruelty , and of the essential truth that indifference (to anther’s suffering) is the opposite of love are starting points.