"One will not go wrong if one attributes extreme actions to vanity, average ones to habit, and petty ones to fear" -- Friedrich Nietzsche
Most of the failings of people can be categorized into three pitfalls: they succumb to a FalseSurrogateEndpoint, they acquire TunnelVision, or they assume FalseSelfImportance (of themselves or their employer or an organization they belong to or their country or their religion).
-- JeffChapman
Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity or sloth. Or, better still, AssumeMiscommunicationNotMalice.