Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
Another viewing, and a revelation
isabelle:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on October 29, 2006, 10:19:30 pm --- I think I'm fascinated with serial killers because I want to know what exactly makes someone have absolutely no pity and no remorse for his fellow human beings and to think of them as animals that are somehow beneath him? If we could know that - if we could know that there is a turning point in childhood that could be thwarted... Well...
--- End quote ---
I am fascinated by them too, so don't worry about blathering!
My partner is German; his mother was of Jewish descent, and his father found himself in the Hitler's youth at an early age, and on the Eastern front at age 18. So my partner is permanently haunted by what his father may have done, and what he did witness (his father died when he was 12, so he could never ask).
As a German, he still bears the weight of his country's history. Talking of mass murderers, the Nazis, the SS, were one kind. It seems too that the majority of the German people was convinced by the propaganda, that the Jews, the Gipsies, the Russians, gays, were "inferior" human beings, rats that had to be eliminated. It has always made me wonder. This example (what the SS did, and the people's consent at the very least) doesn't seem to have anything to do with an abused childhood, or predetermination. OR, it might well be that we are all predetermined, or rather capable, of evil-doing. The circumstances may or may not make you cross the line.
I read Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem", and was terrified at the banality of human capacities for evil.
ednbarby:
Interesting (and disturbing) thought. Perhaps we are all evil (or capable of evil) at heart and must will ourselves to do good. Kind of gets into the existentialist dilemma - in a godless universe, if you can get away with atrocities, what's to keep you from committing them? Conscience? But what if you have none? What's so scary about Hitler and the Nazis is that they encouraged ordinary people to be evil, and those people bought it because they were desperate with fear and resentment about their lot in life. What's to keep someone in this country from having that kind of power again? Yes, I know people hate it when one compares George W. Bush to Hitler, and of course it's not gone anywhere near that far. But look at what he's done and is doing - he is able to convince people that they need to vote for him to "protect the sanctity of marriage" and to "protect unborn children." They buy that, not seeing that in fact the state with the lowest divorce rate in this country is the one state that has legalized civil unions - Massachusetts. They buy that, not seeing that by banning stem cell research, letting the assault weapons ban run out, and sending our young men and women to an illegal and unnecessary war, he's killing a whole lot of adult people who are already here. He has encouraged them to be incapable of reason. It's beyond scary.
Momof2:
I believe it is a little of both. It is scary. Sometimes people that do horrible unthinkable things to other people live next door to you. I think child molestors and serial killers are sick people that can never be rehabililtated. I DO NOT think they deserve a second chance. It amazes me and makes me cringe at what humans can do to each other. There is evilness everywhere. I had a horrible, abusive childhood. I think it made me more sensitive to others. I knew how I had been treated and did not want another human to experience it. My sister on the other hand wallows in it. She can not get over it. It has mad her a sad, bitter and addicted person. So, is it genetics or nurture. We both grew up in the same house treated the same way and both have the same parents. Why did she choose one road and I another. Not sure. I just am glad I chose the one I did.
Kelda:
--- Quote from: Momof2 on October 30, 2006, 06:06:44 pm --- I had a horrible, abusive childhood. I think it made me more sensitive to others. I knew how I had been treated and did not want another human to experience it. My sister on the other hand wallows in it. She can not get over it. It has mad her a sad, bitter and addicted person. So, is it genetics or nurture. We both grew up in the same house treated the same way and both have the same parents. Why did she choose one road and I another. Not sure. I just am glad I chose the one I did.
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Momo - I can very much identify with what you are saying there. How some can bounce back and use it in a positive way and others just can't seem to, and it effects their whole lives.. the choices they make, the temperament they have, the (bad) boyfriends and husbands they choose, how they can never finish anything, a college course or a book. Unfortunately depression is not a choice - sure, some people choose to make an effort and pull themselves out of depression - others just cannot. Whether its a choice to wallow - I'm not so sure. But you certainly are the luckier of the 2 siblings, thats for sure.
Momof2:
Thanks Kelda. I do agree about depression. It is unfortunately not a choice. I was depressed for a very long time. I saw it as a weakness and asking for help as an even bigger weakness. I finally admitted that I could not handle everything on my own and did get help. It has made a tremendous difference in my life and the lives that I affect. I think that sometimes negative things from someones past affect them and they do not even realize it. Our past shapes our future in good and bad ways. You just have to take the good and forget the past. I do agree that sometimes it is hard.
hope
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