Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Sat, Feb 26 2005
BTK
I moved away from the Midwest a long time ago, and I don't really remember ever hearing of the BTK serial killer until this past week. Since a serial killer is basically a narcissist, I found that the parallels drawn between serial killers and terrorists in this article made a lot of sense. Mr. Hutchinson indicates that neither terrorists nor serial killers can be rehabilited to the point where they can view the world around them as anything other than a place to be manipulated to feed their endless sense of need for recognition. He does more than hint that the only way to deal with them is to remove them from society. Of course, they'll die someday anyway. That fate is universal, and even a complete narcissist can't escape it. But society's choice to eliminate a serial killer or a terrorist seems to give the rest of society a false sense that the good people have done something to stop evil.
The truth is that one terrorist, or serial killer, is a lot like the next. And when we eliminate the ones we have among us now, another one will come along to take their place. The little details of their methods might vary from those of BTK, but their choice to kill will still be there. If we're completely honest about it, society's collective elimination of a serial killer carries a disturbing tinge of serial killing in itself, especially if we experience a sense of satisfaction or release from that elimination and know that we'll have to kill again later on. I hope that thought scares us at least as much as the idea of a serial killer among us.
posted at: 07:44 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
I moved away from the Midwest a long time ago, and I don't really remember ever hearing of the BTK serial killer until this past week. Since a serial killer is basically a narcissist, I found that the parallels drawn between serial killers and terrorists in this article made a lot of sense. Mr. Hutchinson indicates that neither terrorists nor serial killers can be rehabilited to the point where they can view the world around them as anything other than a place to be manipulated to feed their endless sense of need for recognition. He does more than hint that the only way to deal with them is to remove them from society. Of course, they'll die someday anyway. That fate is universal, and even a complete narcissist can't escape it. But society's choice to eliminate a serial killer or a terrorist seems to give the rest of society a false sense that the good people have done something to stop evil.
The truth is that one terrorist, or serial killer, is a lot like the next. And when we eliminate the ones we have among us now, another one will come along to take their place. The little details of their methods might vary from those of BTK, but their choice to kill will still be there. If we're completely honest about it, society's collective elimination of a serial killer carries a disturbing tinge of serial killing in itself, especially if we experience a sense of satisfaction or release from that elimination and know that we'll have to kill again later on. I hope that thought scares us at least as much as the idea of a serial killer among us.
posted at: 07:44 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
