Evil is Banal and So Are You

People aren't archetypes, I think is the point, but they embody archetypes by degrees, and more than one at once. Archetypes are the forms, in Plato's sense, and people are mixtures and shadows of those and subject to the constraints of place and time whereas the archytypes are pure and unchanging, though multifarious and multifaceted. Permanent, in some sense, and perfect. 

The evil we encounter isn't as it's often portrayed in books and movies. Because life doesn't end, though ours does, so there's no final judgment on an outbreak of evil. It's woven into the fabric of life, the flip side of the coin of goodness. We're infested with these archetypes, all running around in there, and approaching purity isn't pure it's monstrous. Purity isn't meant for us. 

We are creatures of space and time, and when we aspire to purity we don't actualize our humanity we lose it. So the quest for purity is associated with delusion. Archetypal purity isn't something to be striven for and reached it takes over people as they approach it and they are consumed. They might make it back, perhaps as shamans, if that (schizophrenic) journey involves a return. 

A rebirth, in some formulations. Or that venturer might be dehumanized and destroyed, Which, I believe, inevitably happens to some of us. So we have a stake in crazy people. In some way they bear a burden for us. The responsibility is to prevent (future) harm. So I don't believe in the death penalty but in other circumstances I might, if it's the only way to limit future harm.