Survivors, serial killers & our pre-September-11 brains
I've been spending a lot of time reading books lately -- and learning a lot from them too.
First I read a book by David J. Morris entitled "The Evil Hours: A
Bibliography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" -- and my main takeaway
from it was this: People are more susceptible to PTSD if the way that
they were traumatized involved an act of injustice.
Knowing this, it came as no surprise to me the other day when I was wandering
around the buildings and grounds of that massive VA hospital complex in
San Francisco and got yelled at by a young Iraq vet who
obviously had PTSD. "Injustice!" he screamed. "The Iraq war was unjust? The
whole freaking world is unjust!" And that's the way this vet saw the
world, post 9-11.
However, this guy looked hauntingly like he might have been a young
post-Vietnam-era vet, just stepped out of a time machine from the 1960s. And there was certainly lots of injustice
back in Vietnam too -- wherein only the poor jerks in the Mai Lai massacre
got caught while all the higher-ups such as Henry Kissinger and various
weapons manufacturers just made money on that Tonkin Gulf scam.
Next I read Nicholas Carr's book, "The Shallows: What the Internet is
Doing to Our Brains," all about how human beings think and how our
brains' working structures are constantly being influenced by stuff in
our environment. Even learning to read has changed our brains. Even
clocks did that too. And from this information, I concluded that hate
changes our brains too. Jesus was right. Hate is a slippery slope.
After that, I read Steven Gore's new murder-mystery, "Night is the
Hunter". Steven Gore's books always keep us on the edge of our seats --
and also teach us stuff about power and its ability to corrupt those
who hold it as well. http://www.amazon.com/Night-Is-Hunter-Harlan-Donnally/dp/0062025090
Then I read a book by murder-mystery author Chelsea Cain, who I had
heard speak in her home town of Portland last week. "Even as a child
I was always on the look-out for dead bodies." Boy, she should go off
to Yemen right now -- where the U.S. and the Saudis are bombing women and
children there like there was no tomorrow and charred corpses of babies
are just lying around like driftwood on a beach. http://chelseacain.com/
Cain mostly writes about serial killers. And apparently, according to
Carr's POV, serial killers' brains can get stuck in a groove where, "If you are a
hammer, all the world looks like a nail."
"I'm also always looking for good places to dump bodies," said Cain.
And apparently the American war machine is too! She should try checking out
Afghanistan or Libya or Gaza. Lots of places for mass graves there for sure.
Then I decided to take a break from books and watch some old seasons of
"Survivor" on Roku. And while watching a season that had been taped in
June of 2001, I noticed that all the contestants were really friendly
and sweet to each other. Is that really what life was like before
9-11? Season 23 of Survivor is far more merciless and cut-throat. Or
is it just that they cast more villains in the power roles?
The internet may have changed the way that our brains now physically
function, but our so-called leaders' post-9-11 thinking has certainly
changed our hearts into cold inhuman stone.
