Why They Kill
This book discusses the work of criminologist Dr. Lonnie Athens and uses Dr. Athens's theory and historical evidence to explain the violent careers of Perry Smith, Alex Kelly, Mike Tyson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and others.
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What Hacker News says
- I'd recommend a read of "Why They Kill" by Richard Rhodes - which very much points in the direction of the tendency to violence behaving like an illness. (It does identify clear intervention points, too)
- Your killer is a straw man - someone who seeks to only kill more, to become the most murderous possible person (s)he can, a "Hannibal Lector" of vengeance w/o the epicurean instinct. Then you've further demonized him/her. This is paranoid idealization. But some notes:
fit2rule: "when you are in the business of killing, murdering, maiming other human beings, you're no longer really part of society"
Soldiering sometimes requires killing. So soldiers are no longer part of society? What about the executive branch of our government (which issues the orders to soldiers)?
fit2rule: "we in the 'normal' society don't have a clue what those in the 'murdering business society' really think about us"..."This is a contagious disease, not some 'normality' about human existence..."
Murderous thoughts run through the minds of people everyday. They don't usually act on them but they are there. It's part of our nature: we've always done it. Here's a famous quote:
"I am a man: I hold that nothing human is alien to me." - Terence
For a history of killing and how the responsibility has shifted from the individual to the government:
"Why They Kill: The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist" by Richard Rhodes.
fit2rule: "the 'official killers' really don't care about human life"
Categorical nonsense. People love their spouses, children, family and friends. Soldiers are people as are Presidents. Even psychopaths love and protect their children (usually). All will protect the ones they love from those who they fear will cause harm.
fit2rule: "if you get up in the morning with the intention of taking a human life, if ordered to do so, then you no longer belong to the human race." ..."Anyone who claims to have the right to kill others - for any reason whatsoever - should be treated by greater society as anti-human"... "anyone whose job it is to murder, maim, kill - officially, with sanction from the state - and who chooses to do this as a career is a very, very sick individual."
You're out on a limb here- this is simply a rhetorical blast. I fail to see how being a killer makes you inhuman. I don't know how you would treat someone as "anti-human" - possibly kill them?!8-\
