I was thinking about his thread yesterday, over the course of the day, and was speaking to a retired policeman about a recent local presumed gangland shooting, and this man's opinion was that he did not care, as it was one less of "them"...
I went home, and was thinking about evil, and what it consitutes, and came to a few conclusions...
evil, yes, is a relative concept, and must also be shown in light of good for us to realise it's true depths, yet, beyond these moral concepts, surely evil is more concrete than that?
I visited a prison once, to talk to some lifers. They were all Catagory A prisoners, and the room was full of murderers. Most of them were a likeable bunch, full of interesting stories- most had understood their acts were criminal, but they generally did not feel it was immoral to, say, shoot a man who had molested your niece, or kill a man who had run away with all your drugs when you dealt such, it was okay to kill your wife in a fit of jealous rage, it was okay to kill the man she had been screwing with too.
Most of them would describe their motivations as either: buisness, and part of the game, or acts which we could describe as "crimes of passion"- hot headed, jealous, seemingly spontaeneous acts, which they felt some remorse for afterwards, yet at the time had felt justified in committing...
Anyone of these men could be any one of us, too, I thought: losing control and stepping over the thin line is all it takes- a simple small snap- and next: you're a lifer too.
However, of this group of men, one stood out. Yes, like a few of the others, he had killed his wife- but there was something different about him.
He was nothing much to look at- no model, no body builder or dancer or martial artist. He was quite short, average build and height, middle aged, slightly balding, a seemingly inconsequential man. And yet:
when I made eye contact with this man, like I had with so many others, something happenned. It felt like the world had become a lot smaller, and this man had become considerably larger. I felt like I was being sucked in.
I could not take my eyes away from him, and something in my mind told me I should be frightened, but I was too interested to be frightened, yet I did stand a little nearer to the screws, just in case. This man had simply killed his wife, like a few of the others had, yet...
He had not felt nagged and oppressed by his wife... he had not been greedy, and chose to bump her off for money. He had not been in a rage simply because of her infidelity, he was not psychologically unstable, and he hadn't heard the voices tell him to bump her off to rid the world of stain...
no... he had done it because he wanted to, he thought he'd get away with it, and he thought to commit the act was amusing.
And therein lies the difference. There is a difference between the 17 year old man with a low IQ and testosterone inspired pustules upon his face who watches porn and frustrated, fiddles with his 8 year old cousin. Abhorrent as the act may appear, it is on some level, understandable. Same with these troubled kids who run into schools and shoot their classmates: yes, horrific, yes, wrong, but wow, surely you can see the pain this kid is in to run to such things?
Contrast these acts with the repeated crimes of say, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley: a relatively intelligent man and woman who not only raped and murdered around 20 children but who also recorded their screams so they could play them back at leisure.
So, to me, there is a difference between say, the murder of a drug dealer by another drug dealer and the murder of a child by a stranger who deliberately murders children. I have met a few gangsters over the years, and well, I liked them all. They treated me with respect, and I never felt need to feel fear around them.
Losing control of yourself is easy- people do it every day. Addictions, responding to situations with rage, anger, violence, letting the heart rule the head, easy peasy.
Yet to deliberately and consciously injure, maim, destroy, not from fear, rage, pain, gain, not because you have been ideologically brainwashed so it seems acceptable, not because you have "lost face" and it seems the only way you can maintain ego integrity, but simply because within that is some amusement not found elsewhere: that is psychopathy...
the product of a dead soul, or a sick mind...
Our Gods and prophets may speak different languages, but they all tell us the same thing: God is pleased most when we are decent people. If we are reduced to begging, or whoring, or collecting taxes to feed ourselves, even then, we can still have scruples and a sense of morality.
I spent time with some junkies once, and was fascinated by their behaviour. Yes, they all committed crime to get by- shoplifting, burglary, prostitution, et cetera, but within this group the group supported each other as best it could- sharing, supporting, teaching, etc, and yet...
if you had "gone over", i.e, taken to much smack and stopped breathing, very few junkies would contact the emergency services for you. You would die.
Is this evil? Maybe not- they were at risk of potential prosecution, if they had provided or administered the agent, they may become incarcirated while questioned, which would prevent them scoring more drugs, they might do some jail time and be forced to "turkey".... maybe, to you, petty reasons, but reason enough...
Within this gang, a few people with AID's existed. It is an occupational hazard for junkies, after all. Regardless...
of those who had "the virus", two types prevailed. Those who would never, under any circumstances, share their works with other people, not wanting to pass on said virus, and then, as well as these, the majority, there was a few who knew they had it and would still allow others to use their dirty needles without even mentioning it...
Now, even within these groups, there is a kind of morality. Even the lifers and the scabby junkies usually have a conscience. People who we dismiss as the lowest of the low, filth, scum, even these people have hearts, can be decent, loyal, dependable, can be trusted.
These aren't middle class people with secure jobs and suitably heated homes and well stocked larders: these are generally people who were already at the margins of society even before addiction or stupidity took hold, and yet...
they are moral, under the circumstances. They are still human, and human enough to consider the other humans in their space. In general, they do not want to harm you. They might rob you, but they would rather sneak into your home when you were not there than slice you up with a carving knife, kill your dog and children and then rob you. They are not looking for the delightful screams, the fear; they are just trying to get by...
Even the most grievous acts can be justified, on some level, usually. We might not like the rationale, but we can understand the logic. That person, in that space, under those circumstances. Greed, fear, pain... great motivators... but to maim, hurt, cause pain, simply for the sake of one's own amusement?
Unhuman and inhumane...nothing to do with the Gods...
