I hate violence. In Spain there was a separatist terrorist group known as Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). They fought for freedom for three provinces in the north of the country. I read an article in a newspaper one day that said a couple of guys from this group threw a grenade at a 9 year old girl, killing her. The report sickened me to my very core. What kind of thinking would lead to such an act? Violence is a useless and sickening tactic used by diseased minds.
The Cold War years brought about a unique situation in Europe. You see on one side there was the United States. On the other side was the Soviet Union. They both had the capability of blowing the World to kingdom come. Smack dab in the middle of them was Europe, and it was split between the west and the east. As depicted in many spy stories, including those by Ian Fleming, Europe was a playground for spies. This also lead to covert operations and violence behind closed doors. Two movies depicted this era that also showed the callous violence and apathy of human life. The first movie was a 1986 film called Born American. This film depicted some western college students that wandered over the border to Russia, and got captured and tortured. There was a diplomatic envoy to negotiate their freedom. In a twisted scene the envoy participated in the rape female prisoners after a dinner with his Soviet counter part. The message was the students were on their own. Only one of them made it out by sheer determination. The other movie was a 2006 film called The Good Shepherd. This film depicted the covert operations of the early CIA through the life of Edward Wilson. Wilson headed the operations. In the process he betrayed his love, his friends, his wife, and his son in the name of king and country. He covered up violence, he ordered violence, he cause violence. For example he had the fiance of his son thrown out of a plane in mid flight because of suspicions. He also had a man tortured to the point of suicide. In the end he is left a very lonely pathetic man, with a life of betrayal and violence. Both of these movies were based on real stories. As fictionalized as they were, they did depict the heartless violence that went on during the Cold War. A violence not unlike the systematic humiliation and killing of people in the gas chambers of the Third Reich. What kind of person are you if you commits such atrocities?
In the Americas, there is a history of violent acts for power and money. During the civil war in El Salvador I heard of terrible atrocities. One was of a young woman who was kidnapped. She reportedly was tortured and raped multiple times. Then they dismembered her arms and legs, bolted a board to her back an left her at her mother's doorstep barely alive. How brutal can you be? How inhumane, and how inhuman. More recently the murders in the northern Mexico city of Juarez the murder toll for 2010 reached 3000. That is a lot of souls. That is also a lot of families suffering. Taking that many lives can cause people to become callous about any living being and resort to a mindset not suited for society. In the Time Magazine article by Jeffery Kluger titled Inside a Mass Murderer's Mind it asks the question what makes a killer. This 2007 article came about as a result of the Virginia Tech murders. One of the answers the article give is that of narcissism, that is the complete opposite of empathy. By committing brutal acts we can become so callous to the lives of others that we don't stop. It can become like a high, something we crave. This is what is called bloodlust. The reason there are capital punishment laws is for people who go this route, and societies inability to cope with them.
What does violence do to the person who commits it? Violence takes away from that person all that is sacred, all that is human and makes him into a machine, a killing machine. It is said that to hate is to commit murder (1 John 3:15). An apathetic killer is one who cares not. They don't care for anyone. They do care about their short term purpose. In the end they hate themselves, because they bring about their own demise. Its a destructive path to go the violent route. I'd rather go the empathy route and build up people, give them relief and shelter. We all have the daily choice of being constructive or destructive. I hope you choose wisely.
No comments:
Post a Comment