On “Random Killers” and Society

By Jasun Horsley

logoblacknblueI received an email from a long-time friend and associate, expressing frustration and disgust over the recent Navy Yard shootings.

This was my response:

yes my view is different

The biggest aberration of our culture is the idea of “normality”

I don’t see individuals acting as separate from the social body, and the
FACT of many-layered conspiracies to perpetuate trauma throughout the
species (by traumatized individuals pushing agendas via secret groups,
public bodies, mass media, etc) – and it is a fact, insofar as anything is
fact, not merely “theory” – is only the historical evidence of the much
deeper fact, that consciousness is collective, and what comes out through
single individuals is sourced outside of them (as well as inside), not
merely via radio-waves but via the collective denial of the majority of
individuals regarding their own alienation, misery, despair, rage, and
violence.

Evil for me can only ever be assigned either to actions (which then must be
fathomed to find the source of them, which is psycho-social and spiritual,
even “metaphysical”), or to a collective, such as mass consumer society, for
example (MacDonald’s, presidential elections, etc), which even then I wouldn’t
describe as evil but only as pathological — the result of psychic
fragmentation/dissociation through trauma.

The individual who acts out against such external collective pathology (or
against the pressure it applies to alienated individuals to fit in and be
normal – i.e., accept the mass pathology AS normal), while obviously not
heroic, is not in my view any more responsible than the masses who passively
go along with things — and who scapegoat the “evildoer” (or the autistic,
or the artist, or whoever challenges the idea of normality as a desirable
standard to be enforced, i.e., “social law”) in order to reinforce their own
delusional sense of decency and immunity.

that’s where my disgust goes…

Alexis in this view is a PRODUCT of an insane society, perhaps literally, in
that the event and even he himself (or his guilt) may be A MEDIA FABRICATION
(psy-op), or him a Manchurian Candiate mind-controlled to “go off” in this
way as part of social engineering agendas as old as civilization itself. If
not this, then he/it is still a product metaphorically, as in the above
model described, the “weak link” in a rusty chain that snaps due to the
overall state of things

The alternative to this view is that such individuals must be controlled,
punished, prevented from acting out or even existing, which of course is the
very purpose such events serve, to strengthen the psychosocial agendas of
control, suppression, and denial!

my $2 worth…

Jasun

 

21 thoughts on “On “Random Killers” and Society”

  1. Very well articulated. My own view (better represented through images, impressions and sounds/music) is always translated as a (very simplified) question which I pose to people who bring these things up in surprise: What else were you expecting?

    • Interesting article. It’s not what I was getting at however, at least I don’t think so.

      The point of the first paragraph is that humanity is a collective body and psyche, so whatever happens to one of us, affects the rest. In the body, if symptoms are ignored or suppressed in one part, they may surface in another. When the psyche is out of alignment with the body, the system is off-balance, there’s an attempt to restore balance by the presiding intelligence (not mind, but body-intelligence, which is equivalent in most people to the unconscious). You can see this dynamic at work in family systems also: what parents suppress and deny comes out in the behavior of the children, or through the “weakest link,” i.e., the most sensitive member in the system.

      I haven’t read Bill’s link yet, but even the title suggests something similar to me: Obedience to Corporate-State Authority Makes Consumer Society Increasingly Dangerous. When the governing bodies implement destructive, violent, pathological policies (as is the case in the US at both a corporate and political/military level, if there’s even a difference), and demand allegiance/obedience/support by the populace, it’s natural that “random” acts of individual violence increase, because people are being pressured into going along with an insane system (under threat of being ostracized and singled out themselves as dissenters), and the fear and rage of that is naturally channeled into unconscious attempts to prove allegiance by acting in similar ways to the State, i.e., in irrational acts of violence, fear, and hate.

  5. This is a quick reply to your statements replying to what I said replying to what you emailed about philosophical/metaphysical/psychological concerns I have agitating me regarding my piece I’m finishing up, THERE IS SOMETHING EVIL IN OUR SOCIETY, a quote from a Dr. Orlowski about the DC Navy Yard massacre. The following is an article from the online newspaper truthout that I just came across now that is pertinent to collective madness that infects us individually.

    http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19050-the-experiment-requires-that-you-continue-obedience-to-corporate-state-authority-in-an-increasingly-dangerous-consumer-society

  7. Thanks Jay, Bill, Sounder!

    Chasing a deadline right now but I will get to Jay’s questions/link when I can. Bill – wish you’d post the full email, I think others will enjoy it and appreciate your unusual insights.

  8. What stimulates from Aaon Alexis I don’t really disagree with anything
    you say, not particularly, or maybe in most of the parts anyway. We are
    a collective, we are attached mind to mind in that sense of emerging
    from the same seed. And perhaps like ‘radio wave frequency’ we are on
    to each other all of the time. Whether we tune out or not. the ability
    which we have, tune out, turnoff. At least to the extent we consciously
    turn off infinite inputs. Thus consequent our same original source we
    ‘feel’ each other constantly without knowing it or ‘feeling’ it.
    Cousins, all of us cousins.
    Our protection from circuit blow out, if you will demands all or
    hopefully most all circuits operating so as to ensure the ‘whole’ of
    us has some sort of accepted sanity about us. Not
    helter skelter. Maybe avoiding our common connectedness is important,
    realizing while we are all family of same mind, we shape up diverse
    with disparity and goodness and badness separate at the same time
    joined and must be dealt with according to what best serves the general
    best interest commonweal of us. Not be bamboozled by evil purposes
    radiated, whatever, is our generic sanity. And considering all the
    tomfoolery about, outside and inside of us (I suppose ‘that’ too must
    be identified and defined according to the many truths that we are one
    and all at the same time, we must focus on what is immediate at hand
    and most important.

    Keep us upright (as unnatural perhaps according our
    slithering prehensile ancestry as we is) and moving like we are headed
    somewhere really. We be open circuits seed of mind. From same source
    blossoming into different eclectic, electric personalities. Some of us
    apparent opposite ends of the poles each other, adhering to the
    principle of one chaotic in it’s orderly gravity movement forever off
    balance in balance is as natural as sin.

    Obviously it is best to discount frequencies that are up to no good
    other than to screw us up, whatever for (I got my frequency on you
    pal!). Even mark it up a positive, suffering for an education, a trial
    to inform us they be alive and sick, these little dv’s perverting chaos
    as the evil creating universe. Beware my pretties!

    It is not enuf to give credence to that believed and paid attention to
    and became an obsession. can’t be good for any reason. Negating the
    sense certainly that do unto others provides goodness that seems to me
    proper and common sense far as folks conducting themselves according to
    fairness feeling pretty good about themselves, Relative or not I don’t
    know, but reminding me of your strong suspicion that there is little
    that is normal considering I would guess you are saying the lies of our
    truth. Not to mention without one the other is moot. I question, and
    often, the normality of our society. I say it. We are insane. Posting to
    political blogs, ideologies in danger, in collapse, and Politics and
    Business associate monitoring index society, act insane. Hurting folks,
    not helping, do the same wrong things over and over as if the same ole
    wrong will make right and cure the insanity founded on insane notions.
    There are good Wars. To destroy a village is to save a principle beyond
    reason. Austerity is to solve austerity. Kill for religion is righteous.

    Not to belabour that in all of its ramifications, just to say, within
    this insanity inherant to individual and society, a person all screwed
    up by whatever, still has built in a balance and protection against
    ‘foolishness’ propagandized against/upon us. Accepting that wickedness,
    opposed goodness, whether or not there is either or such a thing in a
    chaotic/orderly cosmos, is subject for extensive dialogue. But whether
    it, a devious method to brainwash, is directly invented for ‘evil’
    purpose, or not, created to screw us up for an agent or agency gain, it
    is evident energy is powered out by folks wanting to slave us up to
    prove to their benefit. The following is more metaphor perhaps, that
    thru ultra frequency electronic waves designed to screw us up by a
    ‘submarine’ service so that we follow the heels wherever lousy locales
    and ignorant, hopeless life they lead, these nefarious agents, for
    whatever reasons, while maybe natural to the beauty vs ugly natural order
    of things, should be exposed for the false propositions that lead us
    into hells. regardless, as I reiterate, how real and natural criminals
    are.

    I think at the bottom of what I am trying to say is that while I
    accept extra sensory impositions as quite natural, if not an adventure,
    my ‘good’ conscious balks at giving altogether tolerance for inculcated
    with whatever evil force is working on and within ‘criminals’ hurting
    even thus, an insane society however conditioned to it. Evil is a wrap
    around word describing in my view that ‘energy’, that condition proven
    by behaviour to be completely antagonistic to anything constructive to
    humanity, even considering the natural inclusion of evil as epitome of
    chaos and all ‘feeling’ things ruined within the chaos, in any universe
    exploding and imploding.

    Evil is intentional and conscious in my view. Thus man made.
    It apparently gets so big and strong that evil escapes our control
    and virtually solidifies into an energy of and in itself.
    But of course likey not. True only if we believe it to be true, then ‘we
    make our own reality’ it really does become real enuf to go on rampage.
    Is there a fine line between real and unreal, betcha. Maybe relative to
    when does inorganic become organic? The seed of each side of finite
    eternity is in the mind game perhaps. A bit of a tangent there, but I am
    remnant Balloonman eh, after all. I know you are focused on trauma as
    underlying reason for somebodys functions, if I can be so careless to use
    dysfuntion as an abnormal thing, and I recognize your focus on it,
    relative your own concerns and biography. I just mention that more
    than making a point of it regarding choice of topic. Now, far as folks
    unheroic who do not challenge the orthodoxy of our social climate,
    compared with those who do like the autistic, without a break-away from
    orthodoxy on purpose but instead are bred into the natural challenge
    right off the bat, since they have no choice, well, I personally
    identify with both category. Normal/abnormal. But I give lots of room to
    the normal ways, normal culture as defined by an obvious farness and
    balance when it is rendered on a society, unaffected so much by the
    controls nefarious elements wish and impose on us. Thus I lean towards a
    judgement of Aaron Alexis and his ‘ilk’ that weighs in favor of disgust
    over compasssion.

    I do think folks like him should be controlled in
    the sense of stopping their psychosis–if I can use that word so
    careless considering in an insane world what is psychosis, but I
    do—stopping his type from hurting other folks got nothing to do with
    him other than be within his reach/sphere for him to use up for his
    sickness to be ‘relieved’. Punishment, I am only concerned with
    punishment in terms of keeping out of his range folks to kill, meaning if
    he were alive he would be contained within walls. Not brutalized,
    tortured, given extra punishment for the crime. Far as judgement, a
    punishment for massacre, I think an eye for the many eyes closed forever
    is appropriate. But of course, that is not what you are talking about,
    this kind of control, punishment. The right to exist for killer types
    challenged by the controllers, this is not what you are directly talking
    about.

    I’d say, perhaps we are both getting off concerns that can rather
    easily relate around and within the traumatized Aaron Alexis massacre
    case. Although I must say this, we often seem antagonistic polarity at
    the same time most amenable. Not so strange considering . . . what? A
    philosophical(metaphysical) connection perhaps, whatever that might
    mean, include. I wouldn’t be surprised if have worn out my welcome
    deploying so much blabber. I hope I am not using this last expression
    here as more excuse to tangent and meander at my pleasure, and
    particularly not to avoid directly answering to all of your issue points.

    So be it for now. Bill

  10. Excellent thread, Jasun, and equally excellent thoughts that is has brought forth:-) The media’s re-presentation of the Navy yard killings, as well as the two events this past weekend, has been quite interesting as well. The mainstream news immediately blasted headlines about the Navy yard killings, followed by faux concern, and titillating commentary about Alexis’ listening to voices and schizophrenic meds. Then, on Friday, the strange killing of a woman believing herself stalked by the president (that’s an idea rich in metaphor) and also schizophrenic, and then the death today of the man who self-immolated on the Washington mall. Three unrelated people, in nearly the same geographic location, each dying in a very public way. And yet, the media sweeps each clean away as quickly as possible. It made me think of the book you recommended earlier this year on social engineering by the media and government. I have no doubt it is more real than anyone can believe.

  14. And free will? Any good cosmology must at least consider it. Systems are both tyrannical and inescapable, as you say here, but without the concept of individual agency there’s no point in even discussing it, or going on, or phenomenological concepts of any kind (we’d be bound to have them anyway, though, I suppose :))

    Your two choices here are therefore reductive and your givens are flawed. If all actions by individuals are the result of their experience within and position relative to society, you’ve neglected the agency question altogether.if you’ve already addressed your philosophy on free will elsewhere (I’m newish to your work) forgive me, but it seems from what I have read that you do believe individuals have at least a constrained ability to make choices. This being the case, even if Alexis’s choices were considerably limited over time, then he is not exclusively a product of or component of a larger body.

    Furthermore, even if your thesis was successful, parts of bodies do go wrong and justice is, after all, meted out on the cellular level. Which is not to say I agree, or that I am not outraged by cellular betrayal, and so forth. 🙂

    • Hi – always grateful to receive thoughtful criticism and questioning.

      I try and reconcile the fate/free will question with the idea that we do have a very limited capacity for choice, but one that has the potential to change everything, and that is the choice to BE AWARE. To self-examine. The reason I don’t believe in “free will” is not only that we are (demonstrably) part of a (perhaps infinitely) larger external system that is moving through us, but that we are also being moved by a larger internal system, that of the psyche, or the unconscious. Hence although we MAY be making choices, in some real sense, it is at an unconscious level and the conscious reason we give for doing the things we do, the choices we THINK we make, are illusory. What does seem to be possible is the choice to allow ourselves to recognize this, and so become more conscious of our lack of freedom, more present and aware in and of our actions.

      This gives rise to the question of whether “being aware” isn’t itself a “doing” and therefore also unconsciously motivated. The answer is I don’t know. One can only be aware of the unconscious by recognizing the limits of one’s conscious awareness. Self-examination isn’t about find the correct answers so much as relinquishing the assumptions that prevent a clear, honest seeing of what’s happening, with or without ever understanding it.

      In short I would say that the Soul acts; the conscious self, at best, observes.

  15. I should add here that I have an adolescent daughter who is severely mentally ill, so your rage about normative society isn’t lost on me by any means. Her illness is part of, or is, her identity, but is also disruptive in the extreme. Untreated, the outcome is death. Treated..normalized, whatever… She has a chance. But I know we’ll she must make a choice about getting “better”; part of that choice involves suppressing her somewhat justified rage at a world (system) which forces all of us to do difficult things. I say this only to underscore why I am pretty convinced that our psychological ecosystem is permeable and incorporates n inner self with choices as well as the external realities.

  16. Jasun. This is the piece I was talking about, the DC Navy Yard Massacre that initiated my contact because of my interest in your explorations of the MIND, thus your take on it. Your reply is up top to what I was thinking which is posted as well here, all that before I finished the following:

    “THERE IS SOMETHING EVIL IN OUR SOCIETY”. In our Collective Unconscious? The One Mind from which we all sprung and remain attached by a kind of seed family condition frequency maybe whether we like the company in and of our station or not. Kill! Conscious? Awake before our eyes is what we observe and presume according to learned habits and act out viscerally our ideas. Which apparently we have little control over really. Altogether now. Kill! That opening quote by the way was a Los Angeles DAILY NEWS headline over a month ago above columnist Doug McIntyre who I seldom read except to reaffirm why I don’t read him. McIntyre short changes objectivity even within a columnist’s license for subjectivity in my view. Makes comparisons, analogy examples to prove his point, analysis summary which altogether too often are exactly opposite my taste, bias and logic, so how then could he be precise to acceptable observations? Instead, and perhaps this is unfair but likely not that uncommon with writers, heh, even fake the issue to serve his ends but worse they are at at the other ends of mine, in any event. Here though he starts the ball rolling quoting Dr. Janis Orlowski, chief officer of MedStar Washington Hospital Center regarding the DC Navy Yard massacre. “There is something evil in our society.” Wait, hold on, redundant but I got a thing about McIntyre and want to hammer home a slap in the face from the safety of my cell: He transgresses topic points and allows himself to riff off personal ‘other’ concerns of his. What’s new, I just did it then and will again here to be sure but since I detect taint of right reactionary angle I find his associate expository tangents callous and annoying if not intolerable.

    However, far as McIntyre’s research journalism goes, okay. Aside in my view him not digging, scraping bottom for the wisdom to be applied and thus deepening summary results coming out with my reasoning, or if I am not at least informed, be affirmed that I am thinking right, self esteem intact in the end. No pun intended. Moreover I would rather not witness once again within his work pre-conceived, with or without his help, a bothersome personality. Considering all that, McIntyre assiduously accumulates, lists the “usual suspects”. Causes and cures for the DC Navy Yard massacre. A serious take but in part tongue in cheek. He includes the blame it on guns crowd, tougher prison sentences. Anti-pharmacology activists blaming psychotropic drugs all the while the mental health profession demand more resources and more research for more drugs. Culture warriors pointing the finger at violent video games, movies and TV’s current fixation with killers as heroes in hit shows like Breaking Bad and Dexter. Fringes blaming the explosion of mass murders on government conspiracy to Teflon in cookware leaching into our brain.

    In my view though, even recognizing diseased culture influences infecting one and then another, spreading, and consequent, if but for the momentum, effecting a shift and a push over the edge a person already on the edge, McIntyre lists mostly symptoms rather than the causes that initiate our abandonment, disconnect from community morality currently manifesting in a “routine massacre every 3 or 4 months”.

    (To be continued)

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