Beheading is in the news. The last item of this sort has to do with Moore, Oklahoma, where a young man beheaded an older woman he had unsuccessfully tried to convert to Islam. The man was sacked shortly before the event. The woman used to be one of his co-workers. A spokesman for the Islamic community in Oklahoma City now fears retaliation. He is thus enhancing security in the city’s mosque. “They have this ISIS thing on their minds,” he told the media, “and now this guy has brought it to America.” In other words, we can expect many more beheadings in the fullness of time. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has introduced a new fashion, and it is now spreading across the globe. All it took were a few short video clips. But the propensity of humans to emulate is no less than staggering. And emulation in execrable activities outpaces that in laudable ones by a wide margin. What does this tell you about the human species?