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 Off-Topic / Debate / 1984
1983  |  1985
Subject: 
Re: Misperceptions of America (Was: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Wed, 1 Sep 1999 01:11:12 GMT
Reply-To: 
cjc@STOPSPAMMERSnewsguy.com
Viewed: 
4610 times
  
Christopher Weeks <clweeks@eclipse.net> wrote:
> > > raging hormones (me again), and is duped by youthful stupidity into
> > > killing some particularly obnoxious peer (I didn't do this part).  Now,
> > 
> > That's one heckuva weird scenario.
> 
> What's so weird about it?  Seriously.

What's so weird?  The actually following through on thoughts of
killing someone, I suppose.

> > I probably fit into most of that as well, and I don't ever recall
> > being put into a situation where peer pressure or anything else might
> > have suggested that I murder someone.
> 
> Really?  I got angry at people from time to time.  I took myself way too
> seriously, and essentially plotted murder on a couple of occasions.
> When the littleton killings took place, I thought 'there, but for the
> grace of God, go I.'  I never killed anyone and I'm glad, but to some
> degree I think it was more luck than some innate value.

I'd like to think otherwise, myself.  The few times in my childhood
and adult life that I have been truly angry enough to want to do
physical harm to someone, I've just done it.  Every one of those times
were, in most respects, self-defense.  Probably _could_ have walked
away from a couple of the earlier ones (14 & 17) but I'd walked away
from a few too many in those schools/neighborhoods and needed to
settle things once and for all.

Never even remotely wanted to kill anyone.  Well, I take that back.
There was a time a few years ago when Rachael was run over by someone
on a bicycle that I did actually entertain the thought of finding the
guy and shooting him, but I'd say reason (and Rachael) set in after
about a minute and convinced me otherwise.

Well, and just to be honest, I did actually look into having the "man"
who was beating my cousin put down, but I don't think of him as a
human being, so I don't really think that counts.

> And if my feeling above is true, and we can (I hope) agree that I
> shouldn't be put down by the system out of hand, then why if I had
> slipped up, or been in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Slipped up?  I'm still trying to grasp a situation in which one "slips
up" and commits premeditated murder.  Gets man, sure.  Maybe thinks
he's made enough to kill someone (and I know it's "cool" for kids to
think the bull they're going through is important enough to die over,
but it isn't, and it wasn't when I was a kid) - sure.  But actually
does it?  That's not slipping up - that's murder.

So yes, if, for just about any reason, when you were a teen, you had
"slipped up" and murdered someone, in a world where *I* make the
rules, we wouldn't be discussing this right now, because you'd be
word-food.

Luckily you didn't.  And I have to say I doubt you ever seriously
plotted anyone's murder.  I was picked on through most of my childhood
for one reason or another, endured some pretty horrible (imo at the
time) stuff, and never considered killing someone while I was going
through it.

Getting back at the responsible parties in other ways?  You betcha.
LOTS of other ways.  Murder?  Nah...

> > No.  Murder is final.  No second chance, no reformation, no getting
> > better.  You commit murder (true murder, not justifiable homicides)
> > and you lose all priveleges as a human being, in my mind.
> 
> Why?  How broad is justifiable?  You cite battered women, and I think of
> that as an extreme of where murder is justifiable, not a maybe point.

Dunno how broad.  I'm no lawyer, or legal theorist, really.  I forget
what I said about battered women, but just to be clear, I'd never
convict a woman of killing a man who beats her.  I doubt I'd convict
friend or relative for doing it either.  Wife/girlfiend-beaters aren't
people.

> > Dunno.  I think that scenario you described is a little too strange to
> > really think about.
> 
> Again, I'm interested to know what's so strange about it.

I guess the thought that any normal teen would plot murder.  I don't
think it happens much.  I WAS a normal teen.  I know normal teens.  I
know a half dozen teens who killed themselves, but not a single one
who killed, or, I think, wanted (truly - not a passing thought) to
kill anyone else.

--
The parts you want and nothing else?
http://jaba.dtrh.com/ - Just Another Brick Auction
Why pay eBay? Run your own LEGO auctions for free!
http://www.guarded-inn.com/bricks/   (still in Beta)



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Misperceptions of America (Was: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep)
 
(...) What's so weird about it? Seriously. (...) Really? I got angry at people from time to time. I took myself way too seriously, and essentially plotted murder on a couple of occasions. When the littleton killings took place, I thought 'there, but (...) (27 years ago, 31-Aug-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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