Do you think in extreme cases of deprivation or abuse, most of us could commit a heinous crime such as murder? I’m not talking about self defense, I mean out of extreme anger (such as avenging a family member) or killing someone for money to improve one’s meager standard of living, or becoming a criminal because of severe abuse by one’s parents turning them into a sociopath.
Are murderers really that much different from us?
Do you count wars? If so, then history is overwhelmingly on the side of “yes”. I think even genocide, violent gang rape and performing torture is on the table for most of us.
As civilians? I’m guessing no. Murder is a pretty marginal phenomenon in most societies in peacetime.
(There may be some gender differences that apply. Men seem more likely to stab or shoot someone than most ladies.)
Read ‘Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101’ by Christopher Browning. About normal working class men from Hamburg and the banality of the evil they committed. During the Holocaust there is not one record of anyone being punished because they refused to murder.
I also think that the method of killing is important. It might be easier to remotely detonate a bomb or fly a drone than to see the face of your victim while stabbing or strangling them.
Let us say there is a cancer patient, and she or he has few days to live and is suffering greatly. Would killing someone like this in order to end his or her pain count as a murder?
I think that for most people, the fear of punishment and public shame is the only thing keeping us in line. Empathy and compassion have nothing to do it.
So yes, I think most people are capable of murder and a lot worse.
Undoubtedly yes. IMO, it’s naive to think otherwise.
Most Americans rounded up and sent to Vietnam were capable of being persuaded to killl another human being under some plausible pretext, with very little self-reflection on whether such a killing had a factual justification.
The only distinction that can be drawn would be between people who murdered for reasons of their own, or who murdered because they had been persuaded to. But in either case, it appears that a civilized adult in a western society would have no qualms about committing murder if there appeared to be some veneer of justification for it.
Last I heard, only about 1/3rd of front-line soldiers ever probably fired their weapon. Most people are too uncomfortable with the idea of killing someone else.
yes, all of us. maybe almost all but probably all.
I grew up in an extremely abusive household. One brother is psychotic and lives on the street. We’ve always said that it wouldn’t surprise us if he went on a killing spree someday.
Yup. They will be wracked with guilt afterwards but most people can be driven to murder under the right circumstances.
That’s a line I think the majority of us could be compelled to cross. The degree of motivation required would certainly differ from case to case, but I can imagine scenarios in which taking someone’s life could be the least objectionable course of action.
Taking self-defense out of the equation, though, does complicate things. If defending someone else is included in that stipulation, then the line is much farther away for a lot of people, I’d say. I doubt most people would commit murder for the reasons you listed specifically, barring the last example. Sociopathy is somewhat common in convicted killers, isn’t it? That’s a genuine question since that could be a factoid rather than an actual fact.
My thoughts are similar to orangeapple’s: everyone has a threshold. For most people, the threshold is very high - if it’s abnormally low, you end up in jail. But no matter how high your threshold is, it exists, and it can be crossed. So yes, everyone is capable of murder. But most people will never be driven to that point.
Absolutely. People like to bandy about phrases like, “Oh, I could never do such a thing,” but when push comes to shove, it’s usually of a cliff.
Every military since the beginning of time has relied on that fact.
This is hardly a new or surprising observation.
I know I could easily kill - in fact, I don’t think I have ever, in 65 years, met a person who, if trained at an early age, would have any problem.
See child killers: people too young to understand the enormity of death kill routinely.
For those who think Martial Arts are a good idea for prepubescent kids, please reconsider - you may have a manslaughter case on your hands because a kid “forgot”. “Frogetting” is what kids do.
Given the right circumstances, yes. But no matter what the circumstances, only when our own personal trip-wires have been broken.
I can think of a lot of people that I could kill if I knew I would get away with it.
Most of 'em are in Congress…
Yes, I think we are all capable of it. Some even enjoy it apparently, but I hope I would never take pleasure in it.
Um, of all the causes of violence and murder among young people in today’s world, I think learning karate at a young age is, let’s see… goes down list… keeps going… um, nowhere on that list.
I think some martial arts training is probably only good for you. It conditions the body, and the mind. And, this is of course anecdotal, but the martial arts practitioners I’ve known personally have been completely non-violent in their private lives.
Plus, it might give you a fighting chance, or even the upper hand, if some asshole decides to pick on you.
If you want kids to kill each other less, having fewer guns floating around in society might be an idea. Although that’s a hornet’s nest I probably shouldn’t poke my head into.