The Evil Within Some of Us

Not too long ago in America, this sicko entered a single mother's apartment, raped her violently a number of times through the night, cut her open while he was raping her because he liked it that way, killed her by dawn, and left. The worst part was that her nearly two-year-old baby was crying on the same bed the whole night. When police got to the scene two days later, the baby had just died of hunger and crying.

This is not an isolated incident. Just read the crime section in a daily, and you’ll find that it happens all the time in civilized societies. Of course, in our darkest times, we all think of dominating others and subduing them to our will, and a ‘sadistic streak,’ though latent, is there within all of us. We normally think like this against those who step on our tails. But at what point does a normal human being cross the threshold that separates the healthy emotion of revenge (revenge as in justice) from psychopathic behavior? The fact is normal people don’t cross the line. They only behave bad reactively--to defend or to avenge.

But there are psychopathic people amidst us who--in pursuit of pleasure or power--will stop at nothing. Their conscience is dead and inner voice non-existent. People raping toddlers, psychos killing just for the fun of it, politicians sacrificing thousands of lives to gain power reek of evil within some humans.

I’m scribbling these profound statements because a recent news story on bullies they carried a few weeks ago in themedguru.com, a 'Health and Medical' portal, has moved me considerably. It has got me thinking on punishment, crime & justice, and capital punishment. Kindly read through this news story before you go any further reading my scribblings.

http://www.themedguru.com/articles/study_shows_bullies_enjoy_inflicting_pain-86116542.html

I am a big fan of punishment. I like to sadistically maim and punish evil people. Because they’ll put me in jail for that, I stop short of doing it. Child bullies are perfect candidates for punishment. If not treated sternly in childhood, they are sure to develop psychopathic tendencies later on in adulthood.

Now, coming back to that rape, whose suffering was the worst, baby's or the mother's? What should be done to the perpetrator do you think? If you don’t endorse capital punishment, when will you endorse it? When your own daughter or sister becomes the victim?

Someone who doesn’t understand that forgiveness should never be unconditional is an idiot. Some crimes are unforgivable, and forgiving the unforgivable is beyond the pale. To a logical and intelligent person, not punishing sadists like that rapist doesn’t make any sense. Where’s the sense in an innocent young mother getting cut open like this, baby dying crying by her dead mother’s side, and the evil perpetrator evading punishment, only to do it again to some other young mother and a baby and KEEP doing it till he dies of natural causes?

I’d go a step further and say that capital punishment is a relief in cases like these rather than punishment. Death is an easy option. Personally, I'll torture him to my heart's content and look for ways to keep him alive. The objective is to make him suffer for as long as possible. Then throw his live remains in the wheelie bin to rot. But like I said before, fear of jail prevents me from acting out my fantasies.

This is also maiming, you might retort, and ask me since when is maiming someone sadistically a good thing? Maiming and torturing someone to derive pleasure is bad, nay, sick. Just as sick as what the rapist did.

But it’s not. Don’t just see torture. Also see where it is coming from. It all boils down to bad and good. Crime and justice.

Appearance is deceptive. Not all bad that looks bad, on the face of it, is actually bad. Maiming somebody sadistically is an obvious crime and should attract punishment of the highest order. I don’t condone it. But when you maim bad people, it is NOT a crime. It is justice.

In simple terms, being bad is crime, being bad back is justice. And justice has to fit the crime. The bigger the crime, bigger the punishment. Muslim countries understand this better than western, developed nations. Looked at this way, Muslims are much wiser than the rest of the humanity.

I suggest there should be double standards when it comes to inherently evil people. Bad elements in society should be identified early on in childhood and dealt with with separate set of rules. It’s like they are the wild animals; you don’t reason with wild animals. You beat the evil out of them and keep them scared of the cane, as only the cane stops them. And if cane cannot tame them, it’s better to put them out, like rabid dogs. There should be an appropriate law regarding this.

It will be stupid to treat bullies as part of the normal society. You can’t reason with them like you can with sensible people; they are past reasoning with. Plus, forgiving establishes a very bad example for them. Personally, I will not look askance at a teacher beating a child bully senseless, and will turn a blind eye towards a cop belting the evil out of a ruthless criminal.

By Harpreet Bhagrath

The writer is the Chief Editor at themoneytimes.com

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