[Samuel.]

Originally Posted by Ammi

..you put it beautifully and are being perfectly clear Samuel...and I do agree with you in that I don’t believe humans are ‘monsters’, what some do/their actions may be extremely horrific and be hard to fathom and maybe described as 'monstrous'..?../impossible to get into the mind-set of with someone who has a ‘rational’ and healthy mind..it’s like these moral dilemma type things, what we think we would do, we’re thinking with a clear and unstressed mind and not one of chaos and panic but in reality, actually faced with something, some extraordinary situation etc we don’t really know what we would do and could do the exact opposite to what we think...obviously those are extreme situations/dilemmas but even in less extreme things you would have to know ‘a life’...the life of the person who did awful things and what would make them do them...and I think that even if someone hurt one of my family..(which has happened..)...my instinct would never be to want them to be hurt back because that wouldn’t change anything that had happened but just cause another mother/parent to experience the pain that I was feeling...and why would I want to do that, why would I want someone to go through the same pain that I was feeling, it's not something that I would wish on anyone because what could be gained from it/how would that 'heal my family'...?..and it wouldn't change anything that had happened.. but I do think though that yes, you're right and an instinct reaction and quite 'human' as well...especially with awful stuff that happens, people do have instinct feelings which may and do often change when more thought is given...

..I do think though also that there is not always a psychology to these things, that some people just do things out of meanness of spirit because they’re just generally not people of good character..maybe they just see someone in the street, decide they’re going to hit them or something and they just do it, no real reason...and that like in this story if something annoys/enrages them then they can become obsessed with it and be calculating in their actions...not really snapping, but just focusing huge anger and frustrations at something or someone..and that's why 'what went wrong' etc as you say would be something that quite often would come later..I mean I think that it would be too much and too unrealistic to expect an instant...hang on, let's think about this a bit first for every awful and shocking story...I tend to overthink things in general but I guess with awful stuff and people who harm others in any way it's to try to understand them because hurting someone or taking a life is a little beyond my understanding in some cases...I mean I understand an act of passion, why someone would do that or self defence or defence of others that maybe wasn't meant to end in someone losing their life but just did etc...but to deliberately harm someone I always have to try and gain and understanding....hmmm, I'm not putting this very well, I think that you're much better than I am at that....but I guess to always think..monster, monster, monster etc in every situation could be described as an extreme..?...(although I don't think it's literally meant but just a reaction thing to something unfathomable to that person..)...but to always try to gain an understanding and look at the psychology in every situation I also think is an extreme and no extremes are a good thing..whether positive or negative etc...it's a balance..and also I don't think that it always applies because nothing also always applies/always in itself would be an extreme..and there really are just people who 'mindlessly' do things, type thing..I mean maybe there is a 'reason'/their thought processes but that doesn't necessarily mean any 'damage' I don't think..because like there are really good people, there are also really crumby ones, just quite mean spirited people it's just that we don't have a tendency to analyse 'acts of kindness' etc, we just accept them for what they are...anyway it would be too exhausting to think deeply about everything in life and none of do that... I think with this story it's one where I don't really want to overthink or analyse to much other than I'm glad that he isn't flying anymore and I feel very sad for the family who have had to go through the loss of a child, a pain which is a parent's worst fear and a grief that may or may not have resulted in not having so much time for Meg because of things like depression etc and yeah, grief obviously ..I think that if any 'positive' was applied to this then that would be it...I'm sure that he was stressed, feeling low and not 'himself' etc...and somehow his focus became the dog who was the cause of it so he would 'rid' the cause because all that had happened to him had spiralled his life down...but was that ridding of it an 'instinct' reaction or more planned, which to me would indicate less of a 'troubled mind' and more a bitter 'blame seeking' one...a lack of acceptance of things in his own life that were no one's fault, they just were and they just happened, which is often the case..well I guess that we can only go on what we have been told of the story and from the perspective of the family and that he has not countered 'their story'....so to me the 'scenario' that I feel is more 'truth' atm is that it's more of a bitter mind and he's just really not a great person at all...

..what's interesting as well with psychology I think, is that whatever thought processes, there will still be a lack of empathy or a lack of 'seeing/understanding' somewhere so whether it's the 'assumption/instinct reaction' of a bad person because of what he did or the assumption/reaction etc of a neglectful dog owner because of apparent barking etc...there will never be a complete understanding of any situation, otherwise we would always drive ourselves crazy and spend our lives in mind conflict turmoil....


..anyway I think that I have completely gone off topic for the most part but you put your post beautifully Samuel....

Great post, Ammi. As you say, we'll never completely understand the full story of anything like this, I think because there are so many variables in play, especially in the minds of those in question. Attempting to understand how someone is able to do something so harmful that you could never imagine doing yourself, it becomes a hard consideration to make, and I think it's only natural to then have purely negative responses to it yourself. I also think it's hard for people to accept that anybody is capable of doing things like this, they don't want a reality like that - it goes in the face of any faith they have in society, so it becomes easy to dismiss the action as something only a "monster" could do.