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| alexandraa |
A mixed bag blog of wandering thoughts today.
There was a time when you could come on here and read thought provoking blogs on a regular basis. Things change and life goes on, and I know I've also retreated into simple blogging about my life and my thoughts, rarely raising issues for debate. I do feel a sense of mourning for the loss of the deeper discussions that used to be had. The thoughtfulness and exchange of real experience. It all seems very News of The World lately. Natural evolution perhaps.
However I've been surprised to see no discussion of the last couple of days' TV programmes where we've seen the re-telling of a shocking story. I, for one, grew up in the shadow of the Moors Murders. The traumatized whispering about tapes of child torture, the bodies, this cruel and strangely unemotional couple. I really wanted to understand more about them but the programme just never went that deep. Or maybe we just never did learn about what motivated their thinking and actions. The torture and murder of anyone, never mind children, is beyond most humans' understanding after all.
Then the desolate moors themselves, which even as I love them I admit they have a sense of brooding and mourning about them. Anyone who has ever been to Glencoe will know some things the moorland does not forget. An eerier place I have yet to visit.
Mostly I feel there's a beautiful wildness to it all. I love the heather, the peat soil, the smell and look of it. Wild thyme, bilberries, bracken and other plants so easily overlooked. Damp soft mists blurring everything. Emptiness, bleakness and yet a clean vibrancy too. An underpinning hum of earthy fertility. I think the Bronte's, particularly Emily, caught it so superbly. Soft soil, muted colours and craggy rocks as if planned and placed perfectly by some age old landscape architect. Perhaps Douglas Adams has it right.
Did you know that we only have moorland as we see it today because of sheep farming? It all used to be forested you know, and would naturally evolve to be like that again except the sheep and rabbits eat everything and keep the heather trimmed low. Never any chance for trees to grow unless you fence it off.
Which just goes to show you a bit of control can go a long way.
I was snuggling tonight in his arms thinking how totally marvellous that feels. I love absolutely everything we do, from the terror though the pain to the sexual fulfilment, every minute a thrill and a shivery delight. Those moments when all is quiet, all at peace and you're aware of his arms moving around you, holding and protecting what's his. Well they're just lovely moments aren't they.
And with that thought, bed calls.
Good night all.
| 17 May 06, 12:14 AM northernwench 7 yrs |
Yep, lots of fiction with the odd fact thrown in.
Nice blog btw
Commandment Number One of anytruly civilised society is this: let people be different | |
| 17 May 06, 1:11 AM Jaggery 12 yrs  |
I think that's the real difficulty of anything like this. I'm not actually interested in reading about why people like these are monsters - we know that already. We need to know *why* they think it's a good idea to torture and kill. Perhaps it is just a sexual thrill thing (and even if it is, I still want to know why), but we have to understand why they did it. And we need to understand that so that we can insure that it doesn't happen again, or to stop someone before they do it. Same as with taking drugs. There is absolutely *no* point in hammering on about how dreadful it is, and how it fucks people up. We know that - we can see the results of it every day. We have to come at the problem from an entirely different angle - what is it about drugs that makes people keep going back to them? Why do they need the high that they get? Why can't they get that sense of well being or excitement elsewhere. Much the same can be said of the Nazis. In order to understand it, and so as not to repeat it, there is NO point in being shown horrific images of concentration camps etc. I already know all of that stuff, and it leaves me no closer to the 'why' of the situation. George Santayana, a notable philosopher, coined the phrase, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." I can see the point that he's making, but I think the point is not so much 'learning' from history, it's more 'understanding' history. Understanding why some people, or a society think that it's ok to murder millions of people, understanding why it's great to take drugs, despite what happens, understand why there is a thrill in torturing people. Once we can understand that, we can do something about it. The big problem of course is that we don't really *want* to understand it. It's a very hard thing to do, and it's so much easier just to nod and say 'yes, isn't it dreadful, weren't they monsters!' Well no, actually, I don't think they were monsters - they were human beings, like the rest of us. But something, and I don't know what, something makes them act differently. And we can do *nothing* if we don't understand their actions - why they felt they were right to do what they did. Until we can do that, we're forced onto the sidelines, looking aghast and horrified, with no clue as to how to stop it happening again. Jags. "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so" | |
| 17 May 06, 1:19 AM Rosalee UK, 7 yrs |
I watched those programmes too and also felt somewhat frustrated that no real attempt was made to try to explain why Brady and Hindley did what they did. But I can also understand that the programme makers must have been under tremendous pressure not to upset anyone. I think that perhaps they were afraid that trying to understand why, may have been mistaken for excusing what happened. And the case has been discussed elsewhere in books and articles, that perhaps are less 'in your face' than tv. Personally I feel rather torn over this. I can't accept the theory that some people are just evil. End of story. I tend to think that personal circumstances and background, coupled with certain personality traits may come into it. Though I do believe that the acts the pair committed were certainly evil. I was disturbed at the references to SM, as if their involvement in it was in some way to blame for the murders. Brady was also very interested in nazi philosophy and the writings of Nietsche and his 'superman' theory and these seem to have been more of an influence from what I've heard of the case. However, I don't think any of these things are to blame. Rather I think that two people came together at the wrong time with the wrong attitude and brewed up something truly horrible between them. It seems they made the decision to deliberately lose their humanity, committed horribly evil deeds and had to live with the consequences. A lifetime of incarceration, which I believe they deserved. I also think it's a crying shame that they have 'tainted' the moors in the way they did. I don't know those particular moors but I've visited others and I love their windswept, desolate beauty. | |
| 17 May 06, 1:28 AM Rosalee UK, 7 yrs |
I think maybe part of the problem lies in once you accept that they were human beings, you begin to see that, perhaps, if the circumstances are right, many more of us are potentially capable of committing such acts. And that is disturbing.
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| 17 May 06, 2:03 AM Jaggery 12 yrs |
Absolutely. Unfortunately, we need look no further than the Milgram experiments in the 1970's when volunteers were put in a position where they had to give electric shocks to people who answered questions incorrectly. (They were actually dummy tests, and no-one was electrocuted, though the volunteers thought that's what they were doing). He was able to demonstrate that compliance rates could soar to 90 percent who delivered the maximum 450 volts to the hapless victim. We all like to think that we couldn't possibly do all those dreadful things, but given the right(?) set of circumstances anything becomes possible, unfortunately. And that's really not a nice thought. Jags. "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so" | |
| 17 May 06, 4:58 PM alexandraa UK(NW), 8 yrs |
Yes I think that is very true, you only have to look at many of the world's regiemes we have currently and historically to see people will do the most terrible things given the right "incentives". We are all capable of great deeds and terrible ones. We still have choice though. Circumstance, opportunity and motivation all play a part. I think it's the motivation that I can't get my head around.
Be careful what you wish for |
