Dark duos
It’s been ten years since the Columbine massacre, and here’s an interesting article about the shooters, the plans, their actions, and some of the misconceptions fostered in earlier pieces about them.
One thing that is now clearer than before is that the scope of their murderous intentions was far more nihilistic and wide-reaching than the terrible havoc they actually did wreak. Their targets? Everyone at the school, as well as any rescuer who might come onto the scene to help. The only thing that stopped then from accomplishing a far larger mass murder was their own incompetence at bomb-making; hundreds of bombs that they planted did not go off as planned.
It appears that Harris and Klebold were in the same mold as many other young male killers who work in twos: Leopold and Loeb and Smith and Hickock come to mind. These pairs often consist of two elements, and the Colombine shooters were no exception: charming sociopath meets depressed follower.
Both are usually quite intelligent—sometimes remarkably so, as with Leopold and Loeb, who were thought to be of genius level. Sometimes there is a great deal of pathology in their backgrounds, especially the depressed loner member of the twosome (for example, Perry Smith, of In Cold Blood fame, had a very troubled upbringing), but sometimes not. Psychology is stumped by what goes into the making of a sociopath (or psychopath, essentially the same thing), but the leading theory is that it starts as an innate trait rather than being primarily environmental: a person is born without a capacity for empathy or a conscience.
Whatever the cause of sociopathy, the effect is a killer who is able to mask his (and it usually is a “he”) utter lack of regard for other human beings with a facade of facile con man charm. He is adept at sensing what people want to hear, and delivering it. When such a person has a strongly aggressive impulse, and meets up with the needier and more conventionally troubled sidekick, a sinister synergism is born. The two feed off each other, glorying in the planning of bloody deeds that perhaps neither would have been capable of on his own. But, egging each other on, they set out on a path of terrible destruction.
[NOTE: Here is a previous post of mine about the role of shame for some of these murderers, their intolerance of that feeling, and their need to expiate it through violence.]
“When such a person has a strongly aggressive impulse, and meets up with the needier and more conventionally troubled sidekick, a sinister synergism is born.”
All the more reason to keep Obama and Biden apart.
Oddly, that reminds me of Star Wars. The emperor and the Jedi who kept losing loved ones (I am almost certain, if not initially, by the acts of the emperor when he saw the flaw begin to form in the other).
As to nature versus nurture, I take a stand against such notions whatsoever. Whether it is homosexuality, transsexualism, or mass murder. It is choice, to my belief. The same with most ills men do. It is time we cut the guilt line which leads back to the parents of monsters. They are their own creation. Through guile, charm, lies, deceit, and other nefarious means, they hide their intent and purposes. It is quite difficult to blame society or parents. When we get over that, we will begin to heal. And, perhaps, properly lay blame and punishment were it belongs.
And, though I do not like the notion, bullying plays it’s own part in our, if the more animal part, society. There is and always will be a pecking order. If we, in the US, are beyond squabbling for meat, fruits, and other necessities, we are still squabbling with ideas and social norms. Loners are at risk. They will either come in or go away, perhaps to become a threat. But bullying lays the line. Some of us tried to cut that line, but even if successful, it was temporary and local. I have come to understand it to be the way it is.
The boys chose to do bad things. They decided to kill people. And why they did it, only they will ever know (or what passes for reason(s) to kill). That they are dead is enough. No contemplation will allow us to prevent the future occurrences. More, I think those that step away from God and family do not control their actions after that choice is made. They are open to evil. It is a choice, every time, until it isn’t but in the wrong direction.
Back in the Eighties when I was trying to come to grips with the most trenchant critiques of socialist utopian thought, I read many articles about genetics, how neurotransmitters in the brain would react with environmental stresses and traumas, etc. I came to the conclusion that logically it makes sense that both physical properties and environmental stresses were at work in the manifestation of evil. Thus, evil does have an organic basis. You can take some kids with very strong hard wiring to be sociopathic and put them in a good environment and they will be what they are: predatory monsters. And you can take kids who may have only a mild predisposition for destructive behavior and insert them into very dysfunctional environments subjected to patterns of abuse and neglect and you will get sociopathic monsters.
Evil most definitely exists. One has to be daft or morally wharped to not grasp its reality. Unfortunately, right now across the Western world we are governed by people who have an entirely inappropriate strategy for dealing with monsters in our midst.
well these comments are the best evidence i have ever seen for the US right being deranged. Countries where gun use is not equated with freedom get less people killed by maniac gun users. How many you had killed so far this year?
This case, though with girls, would seem to fit the mold as well: http://www.ask.com/bar?q=anne+perry+murder+heavenly+creatures&page=1&qsrc=2417&ab=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Fmurder-mysteries.suite101.com%2Farticle.cfm%2Fbritish_murder_mystery_novel_author_anne_perry
Of note is that since the girls were separated they both seem to have lived productive lives.
[Does anyone have any idea what the person at 6:54 pm is going on about, injecting obsession with gun banning in the middle of a serious discussion on the psychological roots of crime? Inability to read, perhaps? Or to understand English?]
P.
Portia — I was thinking of Ann Perry too. I recommend the film, Heavenly Creatures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Creatures
6:54 is deranged.
I am past doing post-mortems on grossly undesirable conduct. Sorry, Neo, but it seems to so very often come down to the deficit was in the upbringing. So it’s never the erstwhile kid’s fault; the perp is the true victim/couldn’t help it/ whatever.
Evil exisits, and it’s like cancer. When it’s manifest, its cause is a pointless inquiry. The pressing thing is to eradicate it ASAP. Sociopaths are one of the evils, and to the best of my knowledge no therapy fixes them even a little bit.
My stepfather was a psychopath. As far as I know, he came from a fairly normal family.
He was charming and people loved him — unless he decided he had no reason to bother pretending he was a great, sensitive guy, and sometimes they loved him even then. My mother never stopped loving him even though she knew better.
My mother and stepfather saw one of the top psychiatrists in California. It made no difference to my stepfather, but the shrink told my mother to divorce otherwise she would lose us, her kids.
In my stepfather’s last letter to my mother, before he committed suicide due to brain cancer, he still made excuses and justifications for his behavior. Over half of the letter he cribbed from Nietzsche without attribution.
I don’t know whether such people are evil or just suffering from some genetic defect that they are unable to empathize with others, but they do exist and they are dangerous.
I don’t think Obama is in the same category, but my internal compass goes haywire when I read or listen to him like it did with my stepfather.
I have been exposed to extreme mental illness (personality disorder) in my life. I don’t mean mood disorders, although they can be a part of the mix.
It has the capability and propensity to destroy the lives of people who are around and otherwise involved with these people, even if no loss of life occurs. It also left me feeling like a dumb ass for not seeing things much sooner than I did.
You can’t break away from it unscathed. I don’t trust any human being except my children, farther than I can throw them. Personality quirks, even just the humorous ones, raise the red flag and have me reaching for my magnifying glass. There is “something” wrong with all of us. I’m just trying to drive along and stay between the ditches.
Although I am totally harmless and love my children ineffably, I have no faith in mankind. None.
br549: Of course you have the faith you deny. You love your kids.
And you would “harm” to protect them if endangered, rightfully.
There are indeed things “wrong” with every one of us. But a life lived by successfully, or mostly, driving between the ditches (wonderful metaphor!) is a *success* most of us in mankind strive for.
The mind of a psychopath is a complete mystery. Is it genetic, is it due to some failure in the growth of the brain during gestation?
I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with childrearing or the family environment or with the culture.
Such a person is like a changeling. A person completely without the capacity for empathy or identity with another. Such a person has friendships and love relationships but he or she is not capable of selfless giving or thinking for another, all actions, feelings and thoughts are completely at the service of the self.
I don’t think all psychopaths are as full of hatred as Eric Harris was, but it would be logical that psychopaths would be prone to feelings and actions of hatred, since without empathy, any denial or frustration of their wants and needs would engender such a reaction.
I’m a creation; a gifted improviser. I lack your conscience and when I was young that troubled me. It no longer does. I don’t worry about getting caught because I don’t believe anyone is watching.
— Ripley’s Game (film) based on Patricia Highsmith’s book
For those who liked The Talented Mr. Ripley, in which Matt Damon played the young Tom Ripley who charms his way into the circle of the rich, stealing and killing as needs be to assume their lifestyle, I recommend Ripley’s Game. Here John Malkovich, at his smoothest and creepiest, plays an older Ripley. Ripley’s Game was never released but boy it packs a punch.
But it’s a beautiful day today. As a relief from the darkness we’ve been contemplating, I offer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k — as uplifting as Susan Boyle in its way.
There’s a difference between a reason and an excuse. There’s too much neurological evidence for me NOT to think that psychopaths/sociopaths are just plain wired up differently, whether this be by genetics or developmental pathology- but that doesn’t mean they don’t make actively evil choices, or that it’s somehow not their fault when they do. Everybody has every reason in the world for their actions and yet are still responsible for them- and when they can’t be responsible, we take away their agency, just as we do with children and those too mentally damaged or undeveloped to live as independent adults.
As for female sociopathy, I have a feeling it’s significantly underdiagnosed. When women kill, it’s usually in a much less dramatic way than male killers- they favor poisonings, or “angel of mercy” killings of those that are already mostly helpless, like the elderly or very ill. Much easier to go without ever being caught- and if the female sociopath in question were not all that violent, easier still.