[Vision2020] Understanding the Real Culprits

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (December 29, 2012) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

-------------------------------------
Understanding the real culprits
By Chuck Pezeshki 
Though the Newtown massacre is already fading from the news cycle, we've seen numerous copycat attacks spread across the nation. From a shopping mall in California, to firefighters in New York, it's like a network of killers has been activated to destabilize modern society.
And there are many one-line answers for fixing the problem. Gun control advocates want a reinstitution of the assault weapons ban. Others have been crying for increased mental health support. Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the NRA, has been on TV with spittle coming out of the side of his mouth, screaming about video games. But one trick pony solutions are not going to work.
I support an assault weapons ban. There is no reason in a civilized society for people to own machine guns, or have them readily available. If you want to protect your home, nothing beats the ka-chunk of a pump shotgun. And you don't need good aim.
But the biggest flaw in this debate so far surrounds the mental illness aspect of the debate. It was a crime against society when, in 1982, Ronald Reagan stopped government support for the indigent, mentally ill population. Overnight, our nation had a homeless problem. But while much has been made of the idea that schizophrenics or other ostensibly deranged individuals are providing the ranks of mass killers with new recruits, it goes against the actual profile of the types of people capable of committing these crimes. I've dealt with a few people in my life with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and they are not the type that plan and execute mass killings.
Yet this fits in with popular societal mental models - that in order to kill 20 children you have to be out of your mind. What is tragic is that people in our society who are already struggling are going to be on the butt end of this particular societal misjudgment. Making it easier to forcibly commit and medicate the easily identifiable mentally ill will make little, if any, dent in the numbers of these events.
My guess is that the people committing these crimes have empathy disorders, and there is a whole slough of them. According to recent studies by the National Institutes of Health, these disorders affect 14 to 17 percent of the population, and their numbers are on the increase. These people can be your neighbors or your co-worker with a cruel streak. Many are highly materially successful.
But they suffer from a cruel edge - or rather, the rest of us suffer. No magic pill exists, nor are these disorders easily treatable. Psychopaths and sociopaths make up their ranks, but there are other types. One of their defining characteristics is their ability to lie and con easily. They know what society thinks - one could hardly pick a more perfect case than murderer Ernesto Bustamante in our own hometown. As a psychologist, he knew exactly how to describe the symptoms of many mental illnesses and fool people around him. Yet in the end, he was a sociopathic, narcissistic killer. His death likely added to the canon of believers of garden-variety mental illness as a fountain of mass killers, which is too bad.
There is one thing that can serve to modulate the empathy-disordered in society. While most all people operate on some mix of their own internal definition and societal appearances and expectations, these people respond only to external definition. As society has peeled back social controls, I'm not surprised we've seen an increase in acceptable anti-social behavior. The answer is a re-orientation of ourselves. In a kinder society, these people conform. And though it might sound crazy, kindness shuts down the radar these people share with each other. The sooner we stop the glorification of the egocentric, the closer we will be toward a world where our children are safe in their schools.
-------------------------------------
Yes. I agree that mental illness is a major contributor to these attacks.
As Idaho continues to reduce the budget of state-operated mental health facilities . . .
As more and more state-operated mental health facilities close their doors . . .
As semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines become easier and easier to obtain in Idaho . . .
Before your doorbell rings . . .
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a Happy New Year.
Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20121229/ab8a3390/attachment.html>