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Behind the Mask of Evil
By Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D
04/25/07 "ICH"
-- -- It is so very easy for us to condemn acts of evil, to
pretend that all is well “with us,” that the evil that has been
committed has emerged from the belly of a beast, that the other
fellow, the one who committed the act, is someone very different
than we are, someone beyond our capacity to understand, never
realizing that we do such a thing in order to justify our
angered need to condemn our foe. The much more difficult task is
to take the time to understand our enemy, to try to understand
why such a person may have chosen to do what he did, for in
doing such a thing we begin to understand ourselves, and in
better understanding ourselves we are led to the realization
that we are in no way different from that of our enemy, that
rather than choosing to hate him, we have little choice but to
forgive the one we have been taught to hate.
As a psychologist, I am bothered by those (especially the
“so-called professionals” on television) who continue to point
out the hate and violence involved in the massacre at Virginia
Tech while ever so conveniently choosing to avoid the rather
obvious fact that Cho Seung-Hui may well have been forced into
“an absolute bubble of isolation, loneliness, and despair.” For
those who might take offense, it is important to recognize the
fact that an attempt to explain one’s behavior is very different
from that of condoning one’s behavior. Although I certainly
despise what Cho Seung-Hui did on that Monday morning in
Blacksburg, Virginia, I will attempt to explain why I believe he
did such a thing.
As a human being, the most important psychological need is that
of being loved (the need to be valued as a respected member of
society, a cherished member of one’s group). But when the
fulfillment of such a need, one that is absolutely essential for
happiness and well-being, is denied, it is only natural for one
to become frustrated, angry, and perhaps even enraged. I don’t
know about you, but on occasion I have felt very alone and
without the support of one who cares, and believe me it did not
feel good. At such times in my life it was as if I had been
deprived of the very thing I most needed in order to survive as
a human being. But even though I choose not to kill anyone, I
yet see myself as no different from that of Cho Seung-Hui.
Perhaps a bit more sane than Cho, but very much the same in that
sane or not, it hurts to the core of one’s being when one is
unable to connect with others with whom one lives. Nothing hurts
more than for one to be looked upon, and therefore treated as a
weirdo, to be the butt of jokes, a laughingstock, one who is
ridiculed, mocked, humiliated, picked on and bullied, and in
time discarded as someone so objectionable that their feelings
no longer count. It is no wonder that nearly every mass murderer
has turned out to be a loner, an individual severely frustrated
in his attempt to reach out for love, a person left with
seemingly little choice but to strike out at what he feels to be
the source (the essential cause) of his problems…… human beings
who do not care, people who, in that of his own mind, need to
die for the terrible thing they have done to him, people who
thoughtlessly denied his right to receive that which he most
needed in order to survive, the right to be held, hugged, his
right to be included in the group…… his right to be loved as a
human being!
I understand the inevitable outpouring of anger regarding a
nearly unimaginable act of evil perpetrated by Cho Seung-Hui,
but just once, I would like to see someone try to understand,
try to put themselves into the shoes of the killer, face the
fact that, other than having been born an autistic child-turned
paranoid schizophrenic adult, we are all in the exact same boat,
that if we, for whatever reason, had been regarded as an
Ishmael, an outcast having been banished from society, anyone of
us may well have turned out to be very much like that of Cho
Seung-Hui.
It would be wonderful if we could move beyond the insularity of
disregarding that which we do not want to understand, an
unwillingness to grant our assailants, mass murderers and/or
enemies of the State, the right to have their own reasons for
doing what they have done. No one can deny that the 9/11 event
in New York City or that of the horrendous massacre in the
foothills of Virginia was evil. Neither however, can we
prematurely excuse ourselves by pretending that we had no part
in the affair, the fact that 9/11 could have been prevented if
we, as a nation, had conducted ourselves in a more humane
manner, just as the carnage in Blacksburg, Virginia could have
been prevented if someone would have taken the time to treat an
autistic child with the kind attention that he undoubtedly
needed.
One last thought……. if there is a moral to this story, perhaps
it is that each of us needs to understand the unimaginably
intertwined nature of humanity, the fact that there are many out
there who have no one to turn to, no one who cares if they live
or die, multitudes of those who are impoverished living within
the midst of utterly ostentatious displays of opulence, greed,
and indifference, absolutely bizarre distinctions between those
who are worthy and those who are not, and all of such within the
context of a rather simple realization that the difference
between a day of national sorrow and one lost within an
imperceptible breeze of lost memories depends upon the gallantry
to reach out to those beyond the pale of our own understanding,
a resolute willingness to move beyond, to transcend, personal
and cultural boundaries that divide us from one another,
international borders that lead to hate and misunderstanding, a
determined resolve to do unto others as we would have them do
unto us, the boldness of spirit to go where no man has gone
before…….. the uncompromising courage to love our enemy.
Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D. - Psychologist -
dougsoderstrom@sbcglobal.net
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