One thing that really interested me in this article was the suggestion that although these assassins and would-be assassins may have had mental health problems, few of them were "crazy" and most of them were far from disorganized. I suppose I had always looked at people who do such irrational and seemingly incomprehensible things to be out of their right mind, but in reality, it must be quite the opposite. I think one would have to be completely aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and what the implications will be. The latter is what they focus on the most, ironically, because they know that although they will likely be arrested, they will become famous and will thus become "somebody." Also, I suppose that an any attempt to kill somebody would have to be planned out to the very last detail, which really changes the way I look at almost all murder suspects. Looking at the AZ shootings, I was naturally inclined to think that Loughner had a serious mental health issue and was not intelligent enough to really know what he was doing. Now, I see him as someone who threw himself at a terrible goal for a reason that none of us really understand - however, we know that he definitely was not a raving lunatic. While I neither condone nor understand why these people feel that assassination is the only solution to their problems, this article has made me think that these people are definitely not what they seem.
One thing that really interested me in this article was the suggestion that although these assassins and would-be assassins may have had mental health problems, few of them were "crazy" and most of them were far from disorganized. I suppose I had always looked at people who do such irrational and seemingly incomprehensible things to be out of their right mind, but in reality, it must be quite the opposite. I think one would have to be completely aware of what they are doing, how they are doing it, and what the implications will be. The latter is what they focus on the most, ironically, because they know that although they will likely be arrested, they will become famous and will thus become "somebody." Also, I suppose that an any attempt to kill somebody would have to be planned out to the very last detail, which really changes the way I look at almost all murder suspects. Looking at the AZ shootings, I was naturally inclined to think that Loughner had a serious mental health issue and was not intelligent enough to really know what he was doing. Now, I see him as someone who threw himself at a terrible goal for a reason that none of us really understand - however, we know that he definitely was not a raving lunatic.
ReplyDeleteWhile I neither condone nor understand why these people feel that assassination is the only solution to their problems, this article has made me think that these people are definitely not what they seem.