Endless Beginnings...
For God's sake, tell me where to begin? I was set out to write about Father's day and the thousands of fatherless Iraqi children.The thousands of killed fathers, the thousands of fathers trying desperately hard to feed their families, daily putting their lives at great risk, in a country gripped by demonic violence. The exiled fathers, selling scraps in Amman and Damascus, bearing the brunt of daily insults. Or the unemployed fathers, feeling torn inside watching their kids go hungry. Or maybe the head bent down father, slouched posture, hiding scars beneath a worn out shirt. The father that has been imprisoned, humiliated, tortured and sodomized, unable to look his children in the eyes... Or maybe I should write about sexual torture and sodomy instead... The further horrors emerging from Abu Ghraib and the Taguba report... More reports of "abuse". And I am sure Abu Ghraib is not over. I am certain that more Abu Ghraibs are taking place in Iraq, in those shadowy deten
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I can identify with what you say on so, so many levels, it's pretty scary to see it in black and white...
Yes, when Lambs have been finally pushed with their backs against the wall, they CAN ROAR.
You take my breath away! None of us should come close to experiencing what you describe, but many of us have - especially the strong, the "whole," as you say. My personal experience began with such a father but came to involve both other individuals and organizations. And yes, it applies to whole countries, as you say, because some persons are 1)so empty and twisted and 2) so powerful that they can delude others and take it to this level.
I take exception to only one phrase: "If you dig deeper, you will find a sense of entitlement, of haughtiness and arrogance and a total disregard for the Other, because in his mind the Other does NOT exist." While the mask of entitlement, haughtiness and arrogance is obvious, it is only a mask. Behind it is the void, of which you speak, but of which the psychopath is unaware (because they are fearful cowards, if the truth be known - and fear is the operative word). I know this from chilling personal experience which I, like you, have taken a very long time to process and which, in the end, made me indeed "roar"!
Bravo to you, this expressive, beautiful woman. You have made me feel understood on a subject one can rarely discuss for it takes one who has experienced it to understand, regardless of the level. And I do understand the entire meaning of your beautiful essay - and agree! And I am more pleased than I can say to hear this experience given words of such depth, nuance and truth.
As always, thank you.
No baby is born evil.
Each of us comes into this world with a desire for Life, for Good, for Love, for Harmony, like a "seed" planted in him/her soul.
The difference is: some of these "seeds" are blessed with a good "soil" and plenty of sunshine and rain, and bear flower..others are cursed with an arid, parched, barren desert, and end up unrealized and forgotten...
This does NOT "justify" anything, but it does "explain" a lot...
I am glad you were able to find some "comfort" however creepy it may feel at first, in that article.
I also hope that you are roaring like a lioness.
The sonata of the "silence of the lambs" ?
Thank you but I did not feel it to be a sonata, more like an exploding symphony.
Thank you !
Only those who go through "the chilling experience" understand it.
Back to the post - when I said " in his mind the other does not exist" - What I meant is that through this process of "objectification" the other no longer exists, hence the psychopath can go ahead and fragment and disintegrate the "other". An object is seen as devoid of feelings, senses, and humanity...a perfect rationalization process to the psychopath to do what he "needs" to do.
I agree to some extent only.
I find your line of argument too easy. Many people have gone through hell, their fall as you like to call it, yet they found no need to repeat the pattern, and opted instead for a consciously chosen different path - Call it Resilience or call it SELF HONESTY or whatever...
I am very weary of theories that somehow by trying to understand, gives some sort of " unconscious alibi".