The Humanity That Lurks

Do we give the term “humanity” too much of moral weight? Why do we insist on the ‘quality of being kind to other beings on this planet’; that which we do not expect from the animals? Our cognitigive abilities that allow us to make moral decisions is what makes us superior to hyenas; we claim.

“If it is intentionality, which seperates our actions from the bevahiour of monkeys and volcanoes, then it is intentionality which forms the basic of building block of choice upon which criminal responsibility is founded.” (William Wilson in 4th Edition of Criminal Law by Longman Law Serious)

Between these headlines is the heart ache of many

I slept the night after reading about the heart paining death of Mohamad Daniel, a 2 year old Singaporean boy, who was kicked and slapped almost daily by his own mother and her boyfriend; the tragedy of Swathi, a 24 year old Indian lady from Chennai (Tamil Nadu, South India), brutally murdered in the early morning of a Friday at a train station and her body left lying for 2 hours as the ‘flies mobbed’; the sick state of a 13-year old Australian girl, whose father, a “facilitator” of a local pedophile ring allegedly advertised his daughter on adult websites.

I cannot help but wonder about the pain dear Daniel would have gone through in the minutes to his death; the loss Swathi’s parents feel now; the trauma that the 13-year old girl will go through for the rest her life. Pain indeed. Very pain.

There’s no such thing as a “senseless killing”(?)

James Garbarino, a psychologist who interviews killers, says that, “each crime has its own logic…Even if the outside world can’t see it.” Indeed, the world cannot see. We cannot see that “underneath the many layers of violent and sociopathic tendencies is usually a person who simply needs help” (read about what he has learnt from interviewing killers over 20 years). Under the likely circumstances, we would not do such a thing and, therefore we will not accept reasons for any senseless killing. It makes no sense! Or so we think. We cannot put ourselves in the shoes of a psychotic murderer, can we? But, they are not psychotic. As, Garbarino says in his book, ‘Listening to Killers’, the killers made a choice to kill someone. They are culpable. Indeed they are, but they are “damaged tin their minds they have lost sight of the relevance of “right and wrong”.

When looked at from the outsider observer’s point of view, many seem crazy. However, each makes sense when looked at from the inside of their minds (and hears in some cases).
(James Garbarino in ‘Listening to Killers: Lessons Leared from My Twenty Years as a Psychological Epert Witness in Murder Cases’)

Humanity Is Lurking

The sighting of babies killed in Syrian conflict, the continued war waged by terrorists, the gun shots that airs wildly, and now media hypes about the after math of #brexit (example) are crusades against the humanity we were made to believe in; that which we want to believe in.

Disconcerting as it might be, there humanity that we know lurks around.