A few years ago I was talking to the mother of a friend of mine. She worked in a facility that provided in-patient treatment for abused and troubled children. These were kids so damaged that by twelve they could no longer function among their peers or were considered to be at risk if left in their current situation.
Everyday she would sit down with these children and try to bring back their souls from whatever pit of despair an adult's maltreatment had confined them to. Continually reminded of how unpleasant human nature can be at times, her frustration at what she saw as society's failure to protect its most vulnerable could sometimes get the better of her emotionally.
On this occasion when we were talking, she was saying her worst source of frustration was the thought that nobody cared about these kids. Sometimes, she said, it felt like the only way you could get anybody's attention about society's problems was to blow something up.
There were days when she felt the only thing stopping her from blowing up mailboxes was that she couldn't live with herself if anybody got killed. She would remind herself how awful she'd feel if one of her children died as a result of violence and this was all she needed to put an end to those feelings.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s in North America and Europe, a couple of groups did end up crossing over the line from protest to urban terrorism. In the United States there were The Weathermen, while in Germany it was the Baader/Meinhof group. Unlike other groups who formed at the time for a specific political cause like the PLO, the latter was born out of frustration similar to my friend's mother.
My sister-in-law is German and grew up in the Germany of Baader and Meinhof. From her I've been told how both had, at one time, been dedicated social workers and journalists respectively and advocates for the rights of those being left behind by Germany's economic miracle. At first they had been content to work via legal means, but in the end they finally crossed the line.
Article comments
1 - Elvira Black
Great piece, Richard. This puts me in mind of a book called "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin deBecker (if memory serves)--one of the leading experts in stalkers, serial killers, et. al. In order for him to get inside the mind of even the most depraved criminal, he has to be able to imagine the world through the killer's eyes. This kind of empathy, if you will, is a positive force, though it "embraces" an evil one.
The author also challenges readers to think of the most horrible things one person could do to another--and then says if you can imagine it, there is someone out there who has done it--and worse. The point being we all have the capacity to think violent thoughts, as well as commit therm--but only some of us have the empathy and insight to turn that terrible knowledge into something constructive and positive--despite the horrific frustrations.