I was just watching one of those murder mystery shows when it came to my attention the staggering amount of events and human interactions that usually precede a murder. It almost seems in many cases, that the murderer's entire life has led up to this one event. Elements of the motive tie into values taught through examples set by role models, as well as life experiences.
It is often observed that a person who can kill a human being, started out by hurting animals or other helpless things. This is not always the case physically. You never know what has gone on in the mind of the killer for years. The mind is a powerful thing. A murder has probably occurred dozens of times in the mind before it happened in the physical world.
It amazes me how people can still be surprised that a certain person who "was always so quiet" could have been capable of such a thing. The people closest to that person somehow portrayed to them that keeping their feelings to themselves was the acceptable behavior. It's the ones who wear their hearts on their sleeves and who tend to "fly off the handle" that would surprise me if they are found to be murderers. You always know where you stand with people like that.
Someone who never shows true joy or sorrow only never shows it to the world. They may not even show it to their conscious minds, but you can be sure that somewhere within their fractured psyche lies the stage upon which plays out the theatre of pain that is their internal anguish. For some that is an untapped, unmapped territory, the avoidance of which, more than likely, started out as a way to survive horrific tortures visited upon them from some external force. They chose not to show their pain and now are blind to it themselves.
Within such a hell as a life gone wrong, with the added cage of unexpressed agony, an acting out may not seem terribly out of the question. One can only go so long without some outlet for repressed anger, fear, sorrow, hatred and despair. Without a healthy output of moment-to-moment emotions, pain coalesces into darkness which can fill every available space inside the person before spilling out through any weaknesses in their self-imposed armor/cage. The armor to keep pain out has become the cage that has kept pain in, but, just as with any man-made enclosure, there are weak points, seams through which something may squeeze, given sufficient pressure.
It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it has been my observation that it takes a village to raise a murderer, a rapist or a child molester. No murderer is an island.
It is often observed that a person who can kill a human being, started out by hurting animals or other helpless things. This is not always the case physically. You never know what has gone on in the mind of the killer for years. The mind is a powerful thing. A murder has probably occurred dozens of times in the mind before it happened in the physical world.
It amazes me how people can still be surprised that a certain person who "was always so quiet" could have been capable of such a thing. The people closest to that person somehow portrayed to them that keeping their feelings to themselves was the acceptable behavior. It's the ones who wear their hearts on their sleeves and who tend to "fly off the handle" that would surprise me if they are found to be murderers. You always know where you stand with people like that.
Someone who never shows true joy or sorrow only never shows it to the world. They may not even show it to their conscious minds, but you can be sure that somewhere within their fractured psyche lies the stage upon which plays out the theatre of pain that is their internal anguish. For some that is an untapped, unmapped territory, the avoidance of which, more than likely, started out as a way to survive horrific tortures visited upon them from some external force. They chose not to show their pain and now are blind to it themselves.
Within such a hell as a life gone wrong, with the added cage of unexpressed agony, an acting out may not seem terribly out of the question. One can only go so long without some outlet for repressed anger, fear, sorrow, hatred and despair. Without a healthy output of moment-to-moment emotions, pain coalesces into darkness which can fill every available space inside the person before spilling out through any weaknesses in their self-imposed armor/cage. The armor to keep pain out has become the cage that has kept pain in, but, just as with any man-made enclosure, there are weak points, seams through which something may squeeze, given sufficient pressure.
It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it has been my observation that it takes a village to raise a murderer, a rapist or a child molester. No murderer is an island.
