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Title: Hating Yourself, Hating Others, Hating the World
Source:
The Bob Circus 3.0
URL Source: http://home.att.net/~bob.wallace/index3.html
Published: Oct 14, 2006
Author: Bob Wallace
Post Date: 2006-10-14 14:32:40 by YertleTurtle
Keywords: None
Views: 336
Comments: 26
Both Nietzsche and Dostoevsky noticed that those who hate themselves hate others. Not only do they hate others, they want to destroy the world. Neither explained why, so these observations I filed away in my Mental File Cabinet for later thought. At first they didn't make much sense, but I knew something would give me the clue. It always does. In this case it was a book by William Allen called, Starkweather: a Portrait of a Mass Murderer. I had heard of Charles Starkweather, because he has become an American mythic archetype, but at first I remembered his name as Virgil. I realized the reason for it is because Woody Allen, in his movie, Take the Money and Run, named his character Virgil. That's what I mean by Starkweather becoming an archetype. There have been movies about him (i>Natural Born Killers for one), songs (even one by Bruce Springsteen), books, and Stephen King admitted he kept a scrapbook about him as a teen. That shows the fascination the man holds, even over 50 years after his crimes. I picked the book up at the library, on the free shelf out in the lobby where the library and people put books so people can take them. I would have passed by the book except for two reasons: I remembered that Starkweather had gone on his ten-day killing rampage in 1958, in which he murdered eleven people, with his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Fugate, and the cover of the book had a picture of Starkweather in which he was clearly trying to imitate James Dean, dangling cigarette, three-inch pompadour and everything else associated with the actor. Starkweather, who went on his killing spree at 19, grew up short (5'5"), bow-legged, pigeon-toed, half-blind, with a slight speech impediment, and dumb. Are those reasons to do what he did? Of course not. Some people suffer much worse and don't even come close to his crimes. He was also excruciatingly sensitive to any criticism and so imaginative he saw criticism when there was none. None of these traits excuse what he did, but they give a clue to why he did it. Starkweather said he hated himself because of his flaws. Those flaws wouldn't mean much except that what other people thought of him got inside his head and became part of his character. Marshall McLuhan, quoting Alexander Pope and William Blake, wrote, "We become what he behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." Starkweather was shaped by what he beheld. It's not that simple, unfortunately, because he would have to been born with certain character flaws in the first place. All of us are. However, Starkweather's probably would not have been actualized except by the society in which he raised. Society is, in a sense, a "tool," one that we are supposed to use to make our lives better. It doesn't always work that way. People shape society, and then society shapes them, according to their inborn nature, and sometimes it's not for the best. Starkweather, born flawed, beheld what society thought of him, and was shaped by it. It brought his constitutional flaws out into the open and into play. According to him, this started his first day of school, at the age of five. The other children made of fun because of his speech impediment, and after that ostracized him. He retaliated by fighting the other kids for years. Not at all surprisingly, Starkweather blamed his self-hatred on other people. He blamed society for his problems, going so far as to claim all his murders were in self-defense. The first impulse of all people, their first defense, is to blame their problems on others. I've lost track of how many times I written this, but blaming other people is the lesson of that ancient myth about the Garden of Eden. Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent, a symbol of envy. This story tells us that many people, if not most, blame their problems on others because of feelings of envy. Did Starkweather feel envy? The book does not say, but suggests that he did. He was poor and nihilistic, and a rebel, and two of the people he murdered were rich. He spent a few days in their house, enjoying the luxury that he, as a garbageman, never had. That might not the main point, though. The main point is that he blamed his problems on others, and so hated them because he thought they were responsible for his hating himself. Get rid of them, he fantasized, and his problems would disappear. He said he had fantasies of killing everyone in the world and living alone in nature with animals. Since he couldn't change himself, and blamed his problems on the world, he wanted to change the world by destroying it. Psychiatrists judged Starkweather to be a five-year-old boy with a cap gun -- bang, you're dead. He's what was, and is called, a "character disorder," meaning he blamed his problems on others. That's the main characteristics of character disorders. We've all met them -- "You made me do it!" is their eternal complaint against others. Starkweather said the only time he ceased hating himself was when he was with his girlfriend. She liked, admired and approved of him. It was as if she was a mirror, and he saw himself as she saw him, rather than as he saw himself. Still, her approval wasn't enough, and his hate and rage led to his crime spree. Those killings, he said, temporarily gave him a sense of power, power that erased, again temporarily, his self-hatred. It still wasn't enough. There is an old saying, "Trauma demands repetition," and Starkweather kept repeating that trauma, although not healing it. Murder never does. Inexplicably, Starkweather had professional artistic talent, although he never truly developed it until he was in prison. Why the fascination even now, with Starkweather? Some people hate society, and in many ways, society deserves that hate, because of its oppression. Starkweather was a rebel against a repressive society -- an artistic rebel, of all things. He modeled himself after that most sensitive of rebels, James Dean. He made himself above the law. Do not many teenagers have such fantasies? Even Stephen King, writing about his novel, The Stand, said he enjoyed destroying our flawed world and dancing on its grave. Is there not a little bit of Starkweather in him, and all of us? If there wasn't, would the story of Noah's Flood ever existed? Or the "Left Behind" destroy-the-world fantasies of our modern-day fundamentalists? What are the lessons, even now, about Starkweather? One: we are neither blank slates, products of our environment, or completely ruled by our genetics. Whatever exists in us is activated by society. Bad societies activate bad traits. That should be an obvious thing. Two: people want to blame society for their problems. Since they cannot change themselves, they want to change society, even if they have to destroy it. Three: perhaps children shouldn't start school until seven, as in Sweden, instead of five, as they do in the U.S. A lot of children are too young to start school at five. Starkweather certainly was. Four: the public schools should be closed down. Starkweather's teachers knew something was wrong with him, but accused him of not trying in his school work. The same thing happened when I was in school, and I'm sure it happens today. The schools have had enough time to straighten up, and haven't, so I see no recourse except to get rid of them. After all, all the school shootings today happen exclusively in public schools. Five: education is to develop childrens' talents. Did not even one teacher notice that Starkweather had professional artistic talent? If they had, would he have been an artist instead of a failure? Six: a lot of kids are going to go through a rebellious phrase. Learn to deal with it. Society hasn't. Initiation rites help a lot. We don't have any. Seven: societies should be set up so that it minimizes people blaming their problems on others. Ours sure isn't. We now have a professional victim culture, and it's going to lead to more kids hating themselves, hating others, and hating the world. I find it almost surreal that Starkweather was an artist. Artists, as Ezra Pound noticed, are the antenna of the human race. In a demented sort of way, Starkweather was a precursor of our future. Look around these days, and you'll see things, in certain parts of our society, that are, in varying degrees, creating more Charlies. I don't even have to tell you what they are, because you already know.
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#1. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
I've realized the best thing a person can do with those who blame all their problems on others is to stay away from them as they tend to be very destructive (not always to the extent of Starkweather of course) to those who encounter them. They often have no empathy for others, it's like that part of their brain never developed. I believe people are pretty much born to be the way they are, with environmental influences having some effect. I think we are all born with blueprints of sorts, and we all have our own set of flaws, some worse than others. The person who can never be wrong will never grow past the emotional development of a 4 year old.
What a loathsome article, by such a narrow-minded, spiteful, cretinous author.
Our society seems to be circling the moral drain...
YT = Bob Wallace How about explaining that, instead of five-year-old ad hominen attacks? Or are you too dull-witted?
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
Yes, Diana, that's exactly the way I see it. I think most of us have a tendency to believe people will act as we do. It took me a long time to realize there are people out there who are ruled almost completely by self-interest, and are interested in others only to the extent those others will do what they want.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
Yoo, hoo, yoo hoo, I'm calling you out in front of everyone. This isn't going away. I'm waiting for you to explain yourself.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
Why do you hate this article? Does it hit a little too close to home or something?
Maybe it's that envy thing, some people who want to be good writers become angry when they see examples of good writing.
He's not going to answer, so I'm putting him on Bozo. Coward!!
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
I've been guilty of that until these past few years, I took it for granted that everyone was basically good. I have finally figured out there are indeed people who live only for themselves, they have no concern for others whatsoever.
I was pretty much like that, too. In many ways I still am, but I know there are people out there that you absolutely cannot trust.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
I think this explains why Jim Robinson, Richard Perle, William Kristol, Rush Limbaugh, Goldi Lox, among others are wicked, evil bastards :)
Coward!! Some lawn work called me away. My post above might have been ironic.
Oh.
I believe people are pretty much born to be the way they are, with environmental influences having some effect. I think we are all born with blueprints of sorts, and we all have our own set of flaws, some worse than others. The person who can never be wrong will never grow past the emotional development of a 4 year old. i agree with you. it's the age old question--nature or nurture--which is the stronger influence. i'm leaning towards nature. i don't believe most people are able to change who they are or their behavior even when it proves to be maladaptive and causes them to be dysfunctional and destructive to self and others. indeed, many are sociopaths devoid of any conscience.
It was a ten second free fall..that's what I saw, that's what you saw..that's what everybody saw...
that is definitely not the case with leveller ! he's a very good and articulate writer. leveller, what about the article makes you think it's loathesome?
It was a ten second free fall..that's what I saw, that's what you saw..that's what everybody saw...
It's not possible for psychopaths to change themselves when adult -- it's like trying to unbake a cake. But, I doubt those who are serial killers would be serial killers had they been raised differently. The society they were raised in bought their flaws out. I saw some awful things when I was living in California, and that state has more serial killers than any other. Now I live in the Midwest, and they aree vanishingly rare here.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
Excellent. YT you have posted some great articles lately. Now, I'm not much on concerts or Pug bowling, but the school article, the Matrix article and this one have been saved.
Mark The FBI, rather than trying to prevent a terrorist attack, was merely gathering intelligence so they would know who to arrest when a terrorist attack occurred.— Robert Wright - Former FBI agent Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C., that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink."— Christie Todd Whitman - 9/18/2001
Some people have the capacity to change and some don't. I don't know if this is free will or a some part of ones genetic character. Is everything pre written? Is fate or our future inevitable? Are we able to really choose? Or are we left trying to figure out the how and why?
Mark The FBI, rather than trying to prevent a terrorist attack, was merely gathering intelligence so they would know who to arrest when a terrorist attack occurred.— Robert Wright - Former FBI agent Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C., that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink."— Christie Todd Whitman - 9/18/2001
There are those, but a bigger issue, IMO, are the miscommunications and value differences with aliens. Kipling was spot on with The Stranger.
And that is exactly it. These people live a world that is different than ours. They really do not understand why that cannot steal, lie or cheat. They don't make the connection. Criminal Psycologists have concluded their brains have not developed some important part. I see it too frequently in running a Liquor store (yeh, I am asking for it). You have to treat these people differently than you would more normal people, because they will not respond like you would, or you would expect them to. Out of our thousand customer base, we have maybe six or so that everyone knows is special. Not bad odds really. And this does not include the mentally disturbed folks who are just trying to get along in life - they are not scoiopaths, they have had a problems dealing with physical reality. We help them , when we can. My wife evens prays with Sarah, a scizophrenic, when these things are possible. The sociopaths are irregular, hard to perdict, hard to see whats going through their minds, hard to know what they willl do next. More like spoiled children who know nothing of consequences, and can't learn of that. When they come in the shop, we pay attention.
Good piece. I've a couple of minor minor quibbles, fine points with which I suspect you might agree, but which would've detracted from the piece. Seven: societies should be set up so that it minimizes people blaming their problems on others. Ours sure isn't. We now have a professional victim culture, and it's going to lead to more kids hating themselves, hating others, and hating the world. While it is true that you shouldn't hate or blame a cat for not being able to eat hay for sustenance, it remains true that cats cannot, and that horses can. Whatever exists in us is activated by society. Bad societies activate bad traits. That should be an obvious thing. There's perhaps an unstated implication that we can define a good society in an objective way. I don't think that's true. Since trait (phenotype) activation is the result of an interaction, we are equally justified in saying that a person expressing a bad trait is bad for the society in which that bad trait is activated. If someone expresses a bad trait in all feasible societies in the forseeable future, we may with some justification say that person is a bad person. The caveat is that there may be some society of which we have not yet conceived in which the bad trait is not expressed, which has no practical importance except perhaps in reducing the expression of our own bad traits. The most interesting cases combine phenotype expression and cooperative herding. In "good times", there's a general consensus about what traits are bad and what traits are good, and the phenotypic expression reinforces/elicits the good traits in others. In "bad times" not only does our own bad behavior, as definied by ourselves, elicit more bad behavior from others as we define it, but there is much less consensus over just what is good behavior or bad behavior; what is in our own lights good behavior may elicit what is, in our lights, bad behavior from others -- behavior that is not necessarily bad in their lights. Or to put it another way, no good deed goes unpunished.
I certainly wouldn't kill anyone, but I would like to send all the stupid and/or annoying people to the moon...they can come back after I'm dead. :-)
You are too kind, to come to my defense so readily. My comment was aiming at irony, but evidently I missed the mark and succeeded only in provoking righteous indignation. Perhaps I should leave humor to the professionals -- to the stand up comedians, for instance, such as our President and Vice President.
hehehehe...i get it. that is a problem with this medium. no tone of voice or facial expressions to soften the words. that's why i use emoticons. ;)
It was a ten second free fall..that's what I saw, that's what you saw..that's what everybody saw...
;)
#2. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
#3. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
Profound observations - thanks.
#4. To: leveller (#2)
What a loathsome article, by such a narrow-minded, spiteful, cretinous author.
#5. To: Diana (#1)
#6. To: leveller, all (#2)
What a loathsome article, by such a narrow-minded, spiteful, cretinous author.
#7. To: leveller (#2)
What a loathsome article, by such a narrow-minded, spiteful, cretinous author.
#8. To: YertleTurtle, Leveller (#4)
Or are you too dull-witted?
#9. To: Diana, leveller, all (#8)
#10. To: YertleTurtle, robin, Jethro Tull, mehitable, Minerva, All (#5)
I think most of us have a tendency to believe people will act as we do. It took me a long time to realize there are people out there who are ruled almost completely by self-interest, and are interested in others only to the extent those others will do what they want.
#11. To: Diana (#10)
I've been guilty of that until these past few years, I took it for granted that everyone was basically good.
#12. To: Diana (#10)
Starkweather said he hated himself because of his flaws.
#13. To: YertleTurtle, Diana (#9)
He's not going to answer, so I'm putting him on Bozo.
#14. To: leveller (#13)
#15. To: Diana (#1)
I've realized the best thing a person can do with those who blame all their problems on others is to stay away from them as they tend to be very destructive (not always to the extent of Starkweather of course) to those who encounter them. They often have no empathy for others, it's like that part of their brain never developed.
#16. To: Diana, leveller (#8)
Maybe it's that envy thing, some people who want to be good writers become angry when they see examples of good writing.
#17. To: christine (#15)
i agree with you. it's the age old question--nature or nurture--which is the stronger influence.
#18. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
#19. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
#20. To: Diana (#10)
I have finally figured out there are indeed people who live only for themselves, they have no concern for others whatsoever.
Lord loves a workin' man; don't trust whitey; see a doctor and get rid of it.
#21. To: Diana. indrid cold, yertle turtle (#1)
(Edited)
They often have no empathy for others, it's like that part of their brain never developed.
#22. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
(Edited)
Lord loves a workin' man; don't trust whitey; see a doctor and get rid of it.
#23. To: YertleTurtle (#0)
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#24. To: christine (#16)
#25. To: leveller (#24)
#26. To: christine (#25)
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