[lit-ideas] Examples of pathological epidemiology and their stressors
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2019 07:11:49 -0700
In regard to Anders Breivik, he said a lot of things about his motives, but
what he did was kill a bunch of people, most of whom, if looking at their
photos means anything, were Norwegian, or at least Northern Europeans. He
didn't seek out just the people whose ethnicity or immigration status he was
opposed to. He killed people indiscriminately in order to publicize his
manifesto . . . which is what Ted Kaczynski did as well although Kaczynski
killed or tried to kill people involved in the technology he was opposed to.
"Two teams of court-appointed
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_psychiatrist> forensic psychiatrists
examined Breivik before
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Anders_Behring_Breivik> his trial.
The first team diagnosed Breivik with
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoid_schizophrenia> paranoid
schizophrenia
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#cite_note-20> [20] but
after this initial finding was criticized,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#cite_note-21> [21] a
second evaluation concluded that he was not psychotic during the attacks but
did have <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder>
narcissistic personality disorder.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#cite_note-BBC100412-22
[2 [from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik]
Like Kaczynski, Breivik believed he knew best what his nation needed to do.
Can you believe you are smarter than everyone else and not be narcissistic?
Perhaps you can if you really are. Milton at an early age believed that he
could write an epic that would be the greatest of his age. In the opinion
of critics, he achieved his goal; so was he narcissistic? Does believing
that you are the greatest poet of your age by definition mean that you must
be narcissistic?
I didn't read Breivik's manifesto, but I did read Ted Kaczynski's, and
didn't think Kaczynski was narcissistic. What he believed didn't sound so
very different from the arguments of Al Gore. . . but of course Al Gore may
have been . . .
"Since his imprisonment, Breivik has identified himself as a
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist> fascist
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#cite_note-29> [29] and
a <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi> Nazi,
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#cite_note-Dagen191115-
30> [30] who practices <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odinism> Odinism
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#cite_note-Dagen191115-
30> [30]
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#cite_note-autogenerate
dvl-31> [31] and uses <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterjihad>
counterjihadist rhetoric to support
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethno-nationalists> ethno-nationalists."
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#cite_note-Expo14-32>
[ibid]
Perhaps we could be permitted to say that in these modern times a lot of
people have spent a lot of time putting names to the activities of people
who kill other people indiscriminately in order to get a population at large
to harken to their ideas; which ideas when you read them seem fairly
mundane. I'm sure there are many Norwegians who object to non-integrating
immigrants, but if any of these Norwegians feel murderous, one might think
they would choose as their victims, these non-integrating immigrants and not
an indiscriminate number of their well-integrated fellow citizens.
General Sherman's "march to the sea" was innovative when he did it. While
U. S. Grant and Robert E. Lee were killing each other's forces by the
thousands, Sherman took his army into the south in order to destroy, not its
people, but the resources the South needed to continue fighting.
Since that time, various nations during wars have attempted to do the same
thing through bombing, e.g., "During World War II, it was believed by many
military strategists of <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_power> air power
that major victories could be won by attacking industrial and political
infrastructure, rather than purely military targets.
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#cite_no
te-15> [15] Strategic bombing often involved bombing areas inhabited by
civilians and some campaigns were deliberately designed to target civilian
populations in order to terrorize and disrupt their usual activities. . .
The effect of strategic bombing was highly debated during and after the war.
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#cite_no
te-anesi.com-23> [23]
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#cite_no
te-J.K._Galbraith_1958-24> [24]
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#cite_no
te-Williamson_Murray_p._319-25> [25]
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#cite_no
te-econ.yale.edu-26> [26] Both the Luftwaffe and RAF failed to deliver a
knockout blow by destroying enemy morale. However some argued that strategic
bombing of non-military targets could significantly reduce enemy industrial
capacity and production
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#cite_no
te-Buckley_1998,_p._165-27> [27]
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#cite_no
te-Murray_1983,_p._253-28> [28] and in the opinion of its
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interwar_period> interwar period proponents,
the <
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_of_Japan> surrender of Japan
vindicated strategic bombing.
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II#cite_no
te-29> [29 [from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_bombing_during_World_War_II]
With these as examples, can we apply terms to individuals and applicable
national leaders who engage in this sort of killing in such a way as to
exclude it as a pathological social epidemic? Suicide, when there was a
rash of them triggered by such stressors as The Sorrows of young Werther,
has been termed an example of psychiatric epidemiology. So why not see
indiscriminate killing of others as another form of psychiatric
epidemiology?
John Berryman's father committed suicide and years later John did the same
thing: 'In "Dream Song #143", he wrote, "That mad drive [to commit suicide]
wiped out my childhood. I put him down/while all the same on forty years I
love him/stashed in Oklahoma/besides his brother Will". In "Dream Song
#145", he also wrote the following lines about his father:
he only, very early in the morning,
rose with his gun and went outdoors by my window
and did what was needed.
I cannot read that wretched mind, so strong
& so undone. I've always tried. I-I'm
trying to forgive
whose frantic passage, when he could not live
an instant longer, in the summer dawn
left Henry to live on.
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berryman#cite_note-2> [2][from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berryman]
Might we perhaps conclude that we are a species with very few instincts and
so need to be taught all that we need to know to function in society. If we
are taught as John Berryman, that suicide is an acceptable way to solve
one's problems, then we are at the very least influenced by this teaching
and some percentage of people so taught will sometime later on use this
method.
Lawrence
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