Fleeting thoughts

Massacres, gang rapes, bullying, suicide... these tragedies never cease to bother mankind. It is of our own doing, torturing our own kind.

Sometimes I find it so frustrating, the thought that no man is truly evil. After every massacre there is immediately speculation about the mental health of the perpetrator; does he have antisocial personality disorder? Does he have conduct disorder? Does he/ she feel remorse for his/her actions? By massacre it doesn't only include physical harm- it also includes mental bullying that drives a person to suicide. Doesn't the culprit feel guilty? Don't they think about the consequences of their actions? Or are their conscious so obscured by the seething hatred within their souls?

Well, if it's the case of a mental illness, the hopes seem pretty dismal. These are troubled people, deeply troubled people. I've always wondered about people with antisocial personality disorder. What should be the appropriate punishment to impose upon them? They feel no guilt at anything they do, they will only do what they want. Any jail term or therapy doesn't seem of much effect on them, since well, they don't even think they're wrong. What should be done then? You can't keep them all in life- long jail sentences, and you can't release them out into the society. What to do then? I suppose of those who commit sever enough crimes would be sentenced to death. Is that a better option? Since maybe, only death is the option to save their souls from committing further crime. I don't know any successful cases of curing people with this disorder yet, but that's because I haven't researched on that. If a person with this disorder commits a crime, it'd be hard to hate on him. Your soul would crave to hate him/her, but yet you know he/she doesn't know they're in the wrong; they can't see from another person's point of view. So is that a sin?

Come to think about it, if the perpetrator were a normal person, it would make the whole case creepier, wouldn't it? That anger and vengeance can drive a sane person to such lengths. Which can be inferred that, any person beside you and me can be potential candidates for committing such a crime. Any normal person.

We need to talk about Kevin surfaces in my mind whenever news about massacres come about. The thing that struck me the deepest about it was well, what about the mother of the perpetrator? How does she feel? Can a mother hate her child? Can she? When her child has such a vicious and dangerous character? Can she stop herself from feeling hatred?

Reading about the Sandy Hook shooting case led me to the blog post by this mother who claims that her child is haunted by the same demons as Adam Lanza's. I don't know if that's truly the case, but that's another case of mental illness and Kevin-like plot. Except that the child hasn't committed aany crime yet, and let's hope he won't ever.

All these boils down to one point- we humans are so vulnerable. We can be controlled by our mere thoughts and feelings so much so to be driven to carry out lethal acts, inflicting pain unto others. We seem so exposed to these dangers, these subtle dangers lurking within the crowd. Who knows who will be the next victim or culprit? Mental illness can rob a person's sane judgment away. We are vulnerable, vulnerable.

At times like this, only God can help us. 
Gah this is all too depressing. Reading psychology actually strengthens my faith. Interesting.

Time to indulge in some fun stuff.