| Title: Violence Today Author: Shukujo Kurai Rating: PG-13 (for themes) Warnings: Autor's opinons...obviously ------------------------ What suddenly made man decide that he could take whatever he pleased from another man? Was it some carnal desire to own that something at all costs? Perhaps it was the desire to be better, to own that one thing would put one in the standings of the man who once owned the object. Was it just a sudden inexplicable rush of testosterone? It seems that testosterone gets the blame for every odd behavior that man has, including homosexuality. I recently read an article telling readers that if their ring finger is longer than their index finger, they are at a higher risk of becoming homosexual. It went on to explain that 'overdoses' of testosterone while in the womb leads to homosexuality. I fear that man is stretching a little too far to explain some behaviors. It also seems that parents get the blame for all undesirable traits. Overbearing mothers and absent fathers always get the blame for their sons growing up to be rapists. My mother was a tad bit overbearing (yet somehow absent during most of my childhood) and my father left when I was two; yet I feel no compulsion to go out and force someone to have sex with me. In fact, I feel no drive for sex at all. It's not what I care about. It seems that there is a 'violence' gene in our genetic makeup that determines just how violent we will be as our life progresses. It is my personal belief that killers are MADE not born. Ted Bundy did not wake up one day and say 'I think I'm going to go kill a bunch of girls within a four-year time period'. It was more of a progressive thing, in truth. A series of unfortunate events piled up to lead Bundy to eventually kill random women. Several coincidences piled up to warp the progress of events and, at some point, history was taken off course. If Janice Ott had not been out of her home and near Bundy's targeted area on July 14, 1974, she would not have died. Instead it would have been some other random woman, nameless to Bundy and to most of America. Her death made her famous, made her a martyr for all feminists. Bundy was a unique case in serial killer history. He was an unlikely suspect. A well-educated, good-looking young man, Bundy appeared to be above suspicion. The police were looking for some nameless hobo with a low IQ, emotional problems, a hatred for women, and a rampant desire for sex, yet 'inadequate performance'. Bundy was almost none of these. He had charm and wit, making him attractive to most women. In fact, he was more of a ladies' man than anything else. He had an outstanding academic background: a scholarship in Chinese studies at Stanford University, a BS in psychology, a law student, and was employed, rather ironically, as the assistant director of the local Seattle crime commission. Ted gave the FBI a new profile of the average serial killer after being incarcerated with two other such men (Ottis Toole [even though he was described as having "the IQ of Cool Whip"] and Gerald Stano). In his opinion, there were very few true psychotic killers (ones that are driven by voices and visions). Instead, the majority are intelligent people capable of exercising reason and making rational decisions in relation to their crimes. The problem for law-enforcement officials was, he said, the fact that the motive of a serial killer is simply the pleasure that comes from taking another person's life and that he will not stop until he is caught. The more often he kills, the more efficient the killer becomes. Instead of the older belief that serial killers secretly WISH to be caught, Bundy put forth the notion that overconfidence led to mistakes and carelessness. Bundy had somewhat of a split personality. Just as your kindly next-door neighbor, a good family-man in your opinion, could be having an affair, yet carrying on his personal life without guilt or suspicion, your friendly, charismatic co-worker could be killing young girls in his spare time. In my own opinion, Bundy had this remarkable talent for cleverly stating the obvious in such a way that it seemed like a new theory. I was, however, taught after Bundy had been executed, subsequently after the old theories were 'thrown out'. Still I am at the beginning of my inquiry. What drives man to kill? I have yet to find that one magical source that gives all the right answers to all my questions. So I'm throwing this ball to you, dear reader. What makes man kill? |
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