Let‘s talk about evil.

[sparkindarkness]

Evil things actually. Or the evil things people do. I’m not going to talk about evil people - not really. Partly because I think genuinely evil people are rare to the point of being non-existent (oh there are plenty of BAD people, but evil?) but mainly because I think calling people evil is one of the biggest cop outs of all time.

And that’s what I’m mainly going to ramble on about - cop outs. All the little excuses we use every day to ignore evil. I don’t mean justify evil (though, gods know, we do enough justifying evil) I mean all those little lies and assumptions we tell and make so we don’t have to think about it too hard.

Let’s take one of the common ones - computer games (or whatever music genre you don’t like or books or violent horror films, take your pic). It seems that the German kid who has committed one of those sensational and tragic massacres recently was a fan of Counter Strike. Suddenly, that’s it - we have vast numbers of people who really should know better deciding this is the reason.

And they should know better, because it is ridiculously stupid. Let’s have a quick and easy research - hell, let’s just use Wiki, the lasiest research tool known to man. Now, according to Wiki Counter Strike ALONE (not including spin offs, different editions or any other game in the Shoot ‘em Up genre) sold 4.2 MILLION copies.

Now, if this game was a significant cause of people snapping and opening fire on those around them wouldn’t you expect the body count to be a mite higher by now? I mean, 4.2 million people for this game alone (so we can comfortably say, what, 8, 10 million for people exposed to games of that type?) then we’re going to have a lot of people sat alone in small rooms polishing weapons and cackling “one day, one day they’ll paaaaay!!!” Now throw in all the other media that are supposed to be a cause of such violence - just about every music form ever (hells, they were saying it about 50s rock and roll which is snooze-worthily tame. I bet back in the 18th century people were tutting angrily about that terrible Mozart music causing violent crime left right and centre) films, books - you name it. Well, if all of these were a major factor in killing sprees we’d have to employ an army of people just to move the bodies.

I don’t mean to diminish the tragedy of this or any other massacre. They are horrific, heart rending events. The fact these events are so terrible is why we need to look at them and not dismiss them. And that’s what blaming music or computer games or dress sense or whatever does. It dismisses it. Why did he go on a killing spree? He played counter-strike. Right, tut under your breath, engage in moralising, mention bibles in schools, move on to next sound bite.

It’s not the computer games. It’s not the music. It’s not the clothes. It’s not the films. It’s not because someone’s weird or insane or odd or off - or rather that’s part of the result along with the killing. It’s not because someone’s inherently evil. All these are excuses. Convenient ways to file the event away. Easy ways of saying “It won’t happen here.” Or, more tellingly, “me and mine would never do such a thing.” “Real people don’t do that kind of thing.”

Because that’s part of the scary part, isn’t it? The idea that these killers are people - not crazy, not insane, not corrupted by some evil influence. Just people. Maybe sick people. Maybe hurting people. Maybe people that our societies have pushed aside or pushed away. Maybe just people who needed help. In the end we don’t want to think that, hey, we failed this person. That it might just be our fault. That something is wrong with us and the way we do things. That maybe we could have fixed this.

It’s important to talk about evil. But not evil people - evil people can be shut away and forgotten. No, it’s important to talk about evil things and the whys and the hows because otherwise it’s going to keep on happening.

Comments

[makarov.livejournal.com]

It's entertainment, not a guidebook for damning yourself

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

If I was going to blame a single factor for people going nuts and shooting up other people, I'd blame abusive parents.

HOWEVER!

That's not the only reason, nor does it guarantee that that's what will happen.

I agree with everything you've said here.

[sapphybelle.livejournal.com]

...man, you articulated it so much better than I did o.O

[thisdaydreamer.livejournal.com]

Beautifully said.

I think that people are too willing to look for simple answers to complex situations. The simple answers that they find are false and lead us all down the wrong path, but people are reassured by them anyway. Thus, we keep not dealing with the real problems.

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Blaming a computer game is rubbish, of course. And it's entirely possible that these type of killings are committed by 'normal' people who simply snap for some reason. And if so, I agree that we need to talk about how we failed them and how we can prevent future happenings.

However, there are people out there - psychopaths and sociopaths - who have a condition that can make them so dangerous to other people that all you can do is lock them up and throw away the key. Not all sociopaths by any means. Many sociopaths actually end up overall benefitting society, for example many captains of industry are sociopaths and increase the wealth of society as a whole by their actions, although they may well damage at least some of their colleagues and employees in their ruthless quest for the top.

And presumably not all psychopaths actually commit murder, although again they're likely to damage others. But the conclusion that (at least at present) they are untreatable and the most dangerous will have to be locked up forever comes from the most eminent psychologist in the field, a Canadian who is recognised as the leading expert and has spent decades studying the condition and trying to treat psychopaths. Depressingly, this is the conclusion he and the other leading experts have come to.

I hesitate to use the word 'evil' about any people, per se. But they have a condition that means that they completely lack empathy for other people, indeed some don't even recognise other people as autonomous, complete individuals at all. And at present we can't instill that lack of empathy in them, so they will treat other people as cardboard cut outs that they can do what they like with for their own amusement.

Incidentally, I remember a former colleague, a hardened defence lawyer who had spent many years defending all sorts of criminals, few of whom he would use the word 'evil' about, recognising that they may have committed 'evil' acts but they themselves were not necessarily evil. Anyway, he came into the office one day pale and shaky having spent the evening before at the police station representing someone who had been arrested for trying to murder a woman he had just violently raped. Luckily for the woman her children came home early from school and interrupted him. This individual had been released 3 months before after over serving 20 years for multiple rapes and a murder committed when he was just 15 years old. In those 3 months he was released he committed 3 violent rapes (that the police know about - there may have been others) and would have murdered his last victim if he hadn't been interrupted.

He should never have been released, but was clever and told the psychiatrists exactly the 'right' answers to persuade them that he was fit to be released. He'd studied up on the subject in prison, you see. Anyway, my colleague said that in over 20 years practising as a defence lawyer he'd never met anyone before that he so strongly thought should be locked up to protect the public and that what the man said and how he obviously thought about other people, women in particular, was chilling and frightening.

Classic psychopath, deeply dangerous, cannot be treated or cured. I'm not sure 'evil' is the right word, and I'm not sure 'insane' is the right word either. He knew what he was doing is regarded as wrong by society, got off on it and didn't care. Because everything is all about him and other people only exist for his amusement. Incidentally, these type of psychopaths are likely to have a 'normal' childhood with loving, non-abusive parents, so the condition isn't as a result of the way he was treated as such. He's back inside now, and will never be released again. Not unless his condition can be treated and at the moment it can't be. So, in his case locking him up is all that can be done.

[dontkickmycane.livejournal.com]

Well said, as usual.

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

4.2 million people were molding their ass to a chair instead of causing problems.

I can't wait until more of them spend all their time in whatever computer generated gin joint will keep them fully out of trouble. ;)

I of course will happily build the sexy androids and promise not to put the important bits on backwards.