Downton Abbey, Ellen And The Banality Of Evil

By being polite, we justify atrocity

Murderers and thieves with high dinner standards

As I was watching the Downton Abbey film, I pictured the walls framed by bones, filled in with flesh, painted in blood. I enjoyed watching the characters, but the whole house is built on violence and theft. Politeness and ritual is what papers it all over, keeping you from seeing the fresh blood underneath.