At 15:16 23/07/2012, Darryl wrote:
Add extreme abuse to those life histories as well.
True, but what is particularly interesting (that is, disturbing) is
that, over the years, I've noticed that, from what one gains from
newspaper accounts, many of these mass/serial murderers superficially
appear to have been quite normal to those around them. They may be
judged retroactively by people who knew them in everyday life to have
been a little lacking in the normal range of warm human behaviours
but nothing exceptional. Their parents, too, don't seem to be out of
the ordinary. On the other hand, many (if not all) young men who are
clearly sociopathic have usually acted violently all through their
school years and turn out to have had abusive or deeply neglectful parents.
I first became interested what appear to be a Holmes/Breivick type of
non-sociopathic killer because I knew one in my schooldays (when I
was 16). The rest of my class and I were shocked one morning to hear
that one of our number had killed two young nurses with a hammer and
almost strangled an old lady he was trying to rape. Now, we had known
him for five years. We thought he was a little eccentric because he
was mad about buses and collected their numbers in a little book, but
otherwise quite normal. However, we learned later that not only was
his bedroom walls covered in photos of buses but also that hundreds
of bras and other ladies' underwear were stuffed into drawers and
every other available niche. His parents weren't abusive but his
bedroom should have rung warning bells. He (and they, probably) badly
needed some sort of psychiatric attention. And then what could or
should have been done?
Keith
On 22/07/2012 9:56 PM, Keith Hudson wrote:
Arthur,
My comment is that I strongly doubt the literal accuracy of this
news account. Men are more inclined to be heroic in emergencies
because males, intrinsically, are more risk-taking than females.
For example, in the Zeebrugge ferry disaster in 1987 (in which 193
passengers and crew died), I remember reading at the time that one
young man, in dangerous circumstances, helped many passengers to
escape from being trapped below. But the total weight of evidence
from many ship disasters over the years says that men take to the
lifeboats disproportionately to women and children. There were
examples of this, I believe, during the Ttitanic sinking.
All stories of tragedies tend to get enhanced from the word go. I
can well imagine three young men throwing their arms around their
girl friends and then trying to flee together or take cover. But if
three of the six were to die then it's only 8:1 against three men
rather than girls being hit.
Incidentally, I'm glad that the police didn't kill Holmes at
Aurora. As with Breivik's massacres a year ago in Norway, and his
arrest, we need to know a great deal more about the early life
stories of these men (usually social isolates) to identify other
potential misfits at as young an age as possible in order to
hopefully deflect their development.
Keith
At 04:26 23/07/2012, you wrote:
Way off topic but sort of intriguing.
Arthur
To:
'<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]'
Subject: FW: 'Dark Knight Rises' shooting: Three heroes died in Aurora
taking bullets for their girlfriends - NY Daily News
Interesting. The response of the male seems to be to protect. Instinctive?
Who knows. Maybe Keith has an answer or would care to comment.
Arthur
'Dark Knight Rises' shooting: Three heroes died in Aurora taking bullets for
their girlfriends In final acts of valor, Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex
Teves used their bodies to shield their girlfriends as accused madman James
Holmes turned the Aurora cineplex into a shooting gallery.
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/aurora-shooting-died-bullets-sweeti
es-article-1.1119395#ixzz21Oy21I65
http://tinyurl.com/c9sj52m
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/aurora-shooting-died-bullets-sweeti
es-article-1.1119395
Sent from my iPad
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
