CORRESPONDENTS Geoffrey Bulmer and Ralph Musgrave (HAS, both June 10) make interesting points concerning the atrocities committed not just by the Nazis, but also by Stalin.

But it matters not whether the examples used are the Nazis, Stalin, Mugabe, Pol Pot, events in the Middle East, Western Europeans and the native Americans, the Catholic and Protestant conflicts in Europe, the witch-hunts; the Crusades, Rome’s attempted genocide of the Celts, the Biblical Israelites, etc, all the way back to the demise of Neanderthal man there is a common truth behind it all.

Everyone on this planet is born and on the whole remains a decent, peaceful human being.

But there is and always has been that darker side of human nature which if the right buttons are pressed, the right lies repeated until they are believed true, then even the most decent person can be turned into a monster.

Beliefs either political or religious aren’t the cause, just the excuse used to justify atrocities born of humanity’s darker, evil and hateful side. As the saying goes: “Power corrupts, whilst absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

CT Riley, Spennymoor