Why people in power can be so cruel

The political situation right now is so discouraging. Here's something that helps me understand it all:

Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.

-- Simone Weil

It is very important to cultivate solidarity with those who are suffering. Otherwise, we have no idea what cruelty and unkindness we are perpetuating. Simone Weil also said this: "Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, even a duty."