Yeah. I think of that now and then. Can't even trust a cop, how bad is that?
I spent several years studying serial killers, and actually came to feel satisfied that I understood them. It would take pages to discuss what I concluded, but... I no longer feel the need to spend a lot of time thinking about such things.
Also, regarding "there but for the grace of god"...: Think of this -- how much effort does our society put into making things stay the same all the time, hm? Traffic laws, rules of conduct, even business hours of shops and so on are all standardized, so that daily life can be utterly predictable, if one so chooses. On the other hand, it deprives people of the unexpected -- and, when you think of needing to catch a train to make an appointment in the city and the train schedule is all haphazard and your only available train leaves two hours before you arrive -- well, that "unexpected" is indeed to be avoided. On the other hand, think of a child who wants to linger and play in the water instead of simply washing her hands and face and then getting back out to do whatever it is the adult wants her to do. Is it not a good thing for the child to play with water and learn for herself, through her natural scientific curiosity, something about fluid dynamics and so on? yes, I say. On the other hand, it throws off the adult's schedule -- bad, bad, bad! And things are not predictable. And the child is punished. But--!
This sort of slavery to daily expectation might end up depriving people of their innate ability to learn to think critically in unusual situations.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-01-02 09:08 pm (UTC)I spent several years studying serial killers, and actually came to feel satisfied that I understood them. It would take pages to discuss what I concluded, but... I no longer feel the need to spend a lot of time thinking about such things.
Also, regarding "there but for the grace of god"...: Think of this -- how much effort does our society put into making things stay the same all the time, hm? Traffic laws, rules of conduct, even business hours of shops and so on are all standardized, so that daily life can be utterly predictable, if one so chooses. On the other hand, it deprives people of the unexpected -- and, when you think of needing to catch a train to make an appointment in the city and the train schedule is all haphazard and your only available train leaves two hours before you arrive -- well, that "unexpected" is indeed to be avoided. On the other hand, think of a child who wants to linger and play in the water instead of simply washing her hands and face and then getting back out to do whatever it is the adult wants her to do. Is it not a good thing for the child to play with water and learn for herself, through her natural scientific curiosity, something about fluid dynamics and so on? yes, I say. On the other hand, it throws off the adult's schedule -- bad, bad, bad! And things are not predictable. And the child is punished. But--!
This sort of slavery to daily expectation might end up depriving people of their innate ability to learn to think critically in unusual situations.