being on the road right now, i was staying in Taos, New Mexico for a couple days....the night before last and the night previous. the first night there i stayed in a local motel, where i met a rather interesting person, formerly of buffalo new york, where i'd lived for 6 years while my father interned there.
the day before, in brandon manitoba, there was an event of unfathomable horror which had just taken place. a young man of a similar age as that of my son got onto a greyhound bus-one that my son is very familiar with, having taken it so many times-and proceeded to sit in the very back, putting on his headphones and discman to listen to tunes and zone out. a man of about 40 got on the bus, having stowed his luggage and proceeded to the back, sitting next to the young man. from witnesses, he was quiet, polite and friendly.
friend from buffalo had joined the army and other military factions, eventually being discharged for medical reasons, after having done at least one tour of duty. the reasons for the discharge were many and varied, though they all were related to this loss of emotion, insomnia, and others-the result of being put into intense and desensitising conditions, where he no longer is able to express emotion or react with any kind of senses or feelings. in effect, he has become an automaton.
the 40 year old, at one point, turned to the young guy and proceeded to stab him repeatedly and viciously to death, without expression or regard as to what he was doing, then taking his weapon and decapitating the kid....
'buffalo' told me how he has to take medication to maintain a level of functioning; he has observed someone being beaten to death and was incapable of reacting to it, as though it were merely a photo image or a tv screen...when they saw him he merely told them that he couldn't care less what they did-which was true since he is incapable of reacting and therefore engaging himself in situations unless they involve him, in which case he is unable to control what occurs after that-he knows he can quite easily kill another-having been 'taught' to do so.
the 40 year old then tried to commandeer the bus, but was finally prevented from doing so thanks to some heroics by the bus driver and others who tried to overcome the butcher. led away, it was clear he was but an automaton-completely devoid of emotion.
'buffalo' knows he is completely devoid of emotion, and that he has become this way as a direct result of his military 'training' and service. that a person has to have his spirit and natural inclinations broken in order to rebuild them into killing machines to fulfill the demands of an organisation set out to cause havoc wher ever the assignments lie, is an indictment on what our species is capable of doing to its own-and to the world.
there are untold millions of individuals who have lost their capacity to emote, to feel and to act on those feelings-as a consequence to becoming desensitised to situations of horror, violence and mayhem. millions of others it happens because they have the 'humanity' removed from them in the most brutal of fashion in order to mold them into something they aren't intended to be-not unlike the breaking of the spirit of elephants or horses in order to train them to do the human animal's bidding.
how does one stop these atrocities from taking place-the 40 year old is merely a consequence of this....as is 'buffalo'....
