23-10-2008, 11:44 AM
Myra Bronstein Wrote:Well, actually they're not that obvious to me David. I'm just starting to consider the possibility that some crimes against random ordinary people (as opposed to VIPs like JFK, RFK, MLK...) may be committed by killers programmed by gov't. I'm certainly not convinced yet that it's happened; I'm just open to the possibility. I'm considering reading the book I mentioned in this thread, and looking for others on the subject.
But I'm pretty hazy on the theoretical advantages to gov't. I have a vague sense that it would generally benefit a fascist regime to keep sheeple afraid and looking for big daddy to keep them "safe." In general frightened people are prefered by regimes because they can't think clearly.
But that seems to be a rather weak rationale for a gov't to go to all the trouble of manufacturing serial and mass killers unless they're going to use the resulting "shock" in the way Naomi Klein describes--to pass legislation that otherwise couldn't be passed. And I can see some logic to having Manson's minions help usher out the peace/love/trust era in favor of the war/profit/mistrust era. But why program killers to go around nailing ordinary people?
Could they be doing some kind of advanced testing on subjects to see how much mileage they can get out of a programmed killer, so that when they have a VIP target (like John Lennon for example) they feel assured that the assigned killer (like Mark Chapman for example) is up to the task?
I agree Myra that there are few incontrovertible facts available that we can point to, but we really can't expect that either, I think. If we extend the logic of the lone assassin model -- where selected individuals are assassinated - to a wider field, we can begin to look at any number of apparently random and very high profile killing sprees around the world by 'crazy men" who often then commit suicide. I'm thinking of school children being killed in droves as well as ordinary citizens going about their business at shopping malls etc.
This obviously is speculative. However, as a former handgun owner I was interested in the so called Dunblane massacre in Scotland when 15 school children and one teacher were shot dead. The shooter, Thomas Hamilton then shoots himself dead.
Hamilton had four different handguns on him to wreak this havoc. Thereafter a bill was passed in Parliament outlawing ownership of handguns which had, in any case, been extremely carefully controlled via a police licensing system (you couldn't just go and buy one or buy ammunition either). Today in the UK no one other than designated state employees (police, military, security types etc) can own handguns.
The result is an unarmed law abiding citizenry.
But paradoxically (perhaps?) the illegal ownership and use of handguns in the UK has risen enormously. Now almost every street punk and dope peddler in the country has a midnight special and regularly use them.
The same sceanrio is now beginning to happen regarding the ownership of knives following mny headline grabbing knife killings. Knives are, in any case, already fairly stringently restricted by law already but new legislation is being looked at to restrict them even more.
There are many, many cases of similar cases to Dunblane dotted throughout the world.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14