School killers
On the ongoing tragedy of school killings, Dr. Helen quotes from the comments on her talk with Hugh Hewitt last night-
Mr. Hewitt, like everyone else is America, is struggling to understand what would lead a man to kill innocent young Amish girls execution-style yesterday. One of Mr. Hewitt's commenters is wary of psychologists who discuss psychological reasons for extreme acts of violence:
We have become inured to the idea that such a thing as "pure evil" exists, despite the constant evidence of its existence.I heard a bit of Dr. Smith's commentary. In my opinion, to try to find a pschological root cause for this man's behavior is to attempt to excuse it.
What could be more evil than terrorizing the children of one of the most innocuous and inoffensive religious sects in existence?I understand this suspicion of mental health professionals, after all, many of us are Whores of the Court. That said, psychologists can add to the discussion of why people commit mass murder. After all, who has more access to the minds of killers and criminals than we do? If information is used in the proper way, without a political agenda, mental health professionals can help laypeople to understand and make sense of the worldview of a murderer. Does this excuse it? No. Does it mean that evil does not exist in the world? Not in my opinion. However, psychological data can be useful in preventing the next round of senseless killings, and I, for one, am not willing to say that doing nothing is the best tactic to take in protecting innocent victims from the next atrocity.
RTWT here. We've come to a bad patch in this country, and I am at a loss as to what should be done.