It's not very Xmas advent but the news of the day came out of the US when a 20 year old man shot dead 26 people including many infants.
Pretty disturbing stuff. It appears he shot his mother who was a teacher at the school, along with her class of 5 year old children and a few teachers. 26 in total including himself as he did what all spree killers tend to do and killed himself.
I'm not sure I'm going to be able to find some festive cheer or humour in that story, it's pretty grim stuff. Though if I'm honest because it's over the water after the initial shock & news coverage it will be forgotten about here in a day or two. Obviously not where it's been done but that's the way of the news. Massive shock. Big coverage and then forgotten. News is greedy and tends to gobble up something dreadful, stay with it and then put it out to pasture and on to the next story.
Spree killings are happening more and more and we are becoming increasingly desensitised to them. In the UK there have only really been three. Michael Ryan in Hungerford in 1985 when he gunned down 13 people and then Thomas Hamilton in Dunblane, Scotland in 1996 who, in echos of today's massacre killed 16 schoolchildren and their teacher at a school. Finally and most recently in Cumbria 2011 when Derek Bird went berserk and killed 12 people across villages and towns in the lake District.
They are a very modern phenomenon, more common in the US where hand guns and weapons are freely available but on the rise in Europe too. You only have to look at Norway last year when Anders Behring Breivike killed 77 young people on a remote island. He was unique in that he didn't kill himself and stood trial, laughed at the criminal justice system, defended himself and was sentenced after being found sane and in control of his emotions to do such an act.
Can anyone be sane who does these? To me and you. We wouldn't ever dream of doing such an act. Yes of course take your worst day when everything and everyone is in the way and you would cheerfully joke about gunning down the whole of the street and your annoying neighbours. But we wouldn;t do it.
To the people who do, are they aware of what they are doing? Does it affect them? Are they psychopaths or does something go pop one day and they snap. I tend to shout at someone not slay 20 people.
The term is called spree killing. Different from serial killing, which is over a longer period of time., less random and well thought out. Spree killers tend to be more spur of the moment, although in Breivke's case and one or two others they planned the 'executions' for many months.
Psychopaths or the criminally Ill, or maybe even 'evil' people don't know the difference from right or wrong. In fact they often justify their actions as normal, rational arguments. That is truly chilling. The Yorkshire Ripper said that God told him to kill 13 prostitutes. Highly unlikely God needs that kind of endorsement when his image is so poor in modern times. It's clearly a deep level of insanity.
Of course there will be the usual mass hysterical reaction of the media that it's violent movies to blame, it's handguns so frequently in use in the US, it's modern society. There will be a knee jerk reaction that authorities need to do something. But what can you actually do?
In truth it is a bit of everything. it is a relfection of the times we live in. The world we have created.
The worrying thing is that spree killers are getting younger. Schoolkids with access to weapons and a grudge is a dangerous mix. Kids are desensitised now, Endless casual violence in movies, piss poor diet, little or no stimulation or communication as computer games and mobile phones/social media is king. The world is violent & there is mass news coverage so they can make a name for themselves.
It's unfortunately a product of our times. The modern world is fucked. The ice caps are melting, global warming is on the march, we're getting fatter and less active, unhealthy diseases are increasing. Mental illenss is increasing, people are angrier, busier and with less hope and prospects. It won't happen in my lifetime but the end of the world is definately beginning,
Maybe Nostradamus had it right. Spree killings, materialism. laziness, obesity, greed, financial meltdown, rich getting richer, less care for fellow human beings. It's on the slide I tell you.
And you know what makes me laugh? Because we have 24 hours rolling news, digital TV, social media, technology that is incredible, Ipads and touch screens, drive by fast food places and BBM we think we're much more advanced as a world. As humans. Really? Take a look around you. Are things better than 10 years ago? 30 years ago? 50? What will it be like in 100 years? If we continue to murder the planet and fudge the important issues how can we expect all of society to behave?
Spree killings are unfortunately a product of our times. People are on the edge. Mental illness everywhere without people knowing they have it. What is terrible is the lack of shock. If Hollywood brings out a another shoot them up film where the body count is 400, what is the difference between that and a kid seeing the reporting of this massacre on the news. It's still on a screen isn't it?
I'm not condoning this nor am I papering over it. Clearly the perpertrator was very sick or very evil depending on your view. What I'm saying is that it's no longer much of a shock. That is the biggest enditment in my book. It makes me sad.
Fuck me I went all Presidential there. Sorry about that. Of course my heart goes out to the poor families of the dead and of course I'm saddened. But I'm also fascinated at the wider picture. At society. At the world. It's yet another statement of our fucked up times. Amen
Best news for me today. I volunteered to do AA service on Xmas day. It's a emotional day as it was my fathers birthday and it always makes me think of a life lost to alcoholism so it feels right to give something back. Mind you I know my ego is well in tact as when the guy organising the all day meeting ran through the jobs available. Greeting outside, washing up or doing literature, i said to him 'Havent you got anything better?' Twat. After a talking to by my sponsor I rang back and did the 1st available most humble thing. I'm greeting people in the cold outside at 7.30pm and if I'm honest I'm well pleased about that. It's the best thing i could have done.
xx
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