Bad to the bone

I found myself thinking a strange thought as I drove home from school today. Is prejudice, bigotry, hatefulness possibly a mental illness? Why are so many people exhibiting these behaviors in an age where one might think they should be diminishing?

Growing up, I thought only poorly educated people felt, or thought that way. Later on I discovered that even well educated people could harbor such dangerous and disgusting thoughts. One group was just better at disguising or hiding them.

Why do we care who loves who?  What intelligent person really believes that the color of someone's skin makes them less than? What makes Christians so eager to blame Muslims, or Jews, or Atheists for their problems? Why does God become such a bloody topic?

Is there some primal instinct that makes one man dislike another simply because he is not the same? In today's day and age, are there people who never outgrow the bully stage, who lord it over others just because they can? 

People without honor attack others for no real reason all the time. They set a woman's dress on fire because she wears a headscarf, burn religious buildings because they can claim it is for god and country, torture people in the name of patriotism. They turn away those seeking asylum from horrors no one should have to live in, let alone raise children in.

Obviously, ignorance, fear and low cognitive ability cause people to make broad sweeping judgements about who is bad, but what about those who do it knowing full well what they are doing?

Are we becoming a nation of mentally ill people, or are we just bad to the bone?

Who are we?