Anyone who lives in the PacNW or Utah has certainly heard the tragic tale of Susan Powell & her in-laws. You’ve also likely heard the news that the tale is over, anything past this weekend is an epilogue, a coda.
Josh Powell, and the evil that he represents, does not worry me overmuch. He was evil, a raging narcissist who would rather see the destruction of his wife & children than to lose control over them. He is also an anomoly. He is a deviation from the norm. He makes the news precisely because he is. He is a cancer to be excised, and has thankfully self-excised. The only thing that weighs on my heart is that he destroyed 2 innocent children & scarred a social worker in the process (and unless that social worker is a sociopath, she will be scarred with the guilt that she delivered those two boys to their deaths & was powerless to stop it).
What chips away at my faith in people is not the fact that some are evil. No, it’s the fact that far too many are all too willing to excuse his behavior, or to rationalize it as being someone/something else’s fault. Find any news article about Josh Powell & you can find commenters trying to say it wasn’t really his fault, that he felt trapped, that he had no choice because of what the news media, or the police, or the state, or society was doing to him (or the converse, the people who feel as though the state should have done more, & if there had only been a law…). And if he had only ate a bullet in the privacy of his home, I might, MIGHT agree that he broke under the pressure and escaped mortal justice.
But that is not what happened. Nope, he snatched his sons, tried to kill them with a hatchet, and then immolated his boys & himself in a massive funeral pyre as a giant “Fuck you!” to the world. And not for any honorable reason, like trying to keep his boys from becoming food for a Posleen Horde. And still he is defended by some.
I guess I should be glad that the anonymity of the internet allows me to see that such people exist. I guess I also shouldn’t be surprised, given how people have such a need to assign blame for evil actions on anything but the person who did it. It was the state, it was society, it was the media, it was the gun, it was the hatchet, it was the easy access to whatever he used to blow up his house. Anything but the fact that he was evil, because they just can not wrap their innocent little heads around the fact that some people are just evil.
How wonderful their world must be with such blinders & rose tinted glases.
Agreed. He was evil and there exists no excuse under the sun for him to have murdered his children. No one, no entity, forced him into doing it.
Of course, those same apologists would be demanding us that choose to arm ourselves put ourselves between them and the same Posleen horde – ie, demand THEY be defended from evil when all the poor Posleen want to do is eat.
It is somewhat off-topic to note (although it’s your fault, you brought them up) that the Posleen would regard the torching of food to render it inedible as the most immoral of his acts.
As for some of those comments, some of them may indeed be as blind as they say. I think some of the others are just being internet jerks and taking a contrary position because they can.
“Posleen would regard the torching of food to render it inedible as the most immoral of his acts.”
Well, the God-Kings would. They would also be pissed that the meat ruined a bunch of dead Posleen flesh as well in the ensuing explosion (because, if you are gonna deny the Posleen their meal, you might as well think of your honor guard and take a bunch of them with you). The hordes don’t really think that deeply. They would just be sad the meat was ruined.
I think a lot of the apologists are really exercising their hobby horses. But being able to take a contrary position anonymously because they can, combined with the discomfort modern leftists feel at actually confronting evil has to figure in, too.
It may be a mistake to put faith in people. You’re right that it’s important to note that this is an outlier, though the pattern of family-annihilators seems to be becoming more common.
I wouldn’t excuse Powell or anyone else who does something horrible, but last week at work a few of us who have 2 or 3 young kiddos were talking about how surprisingly hard it is to have young kids and a demanding job working 60+ hours per week. I guess our parents made it look easy. Anyway, one of the guys said “you can see how someone would just snap ” (if they were flawed personality wise) and I think we all were pretty uncomfortable saying it, but you can.
to finish the thought: You can see how people could snap into violence when you come home to a house full of kids crying and your wife has nothing good to say after you spent 12 or 13 hours at a stressful job.
Add to that when a high-up elected government official says “Americans have become lazy” and you need to pay more taxes because you’re so privileged and there’s plenty of piss and vinegar for that skinny POS and his traveling freakshow as well.
BIG:
Anyone can understand the “Snap!”, but Josh Powell didn’t snap, at least, not in the way you are suggesting. This was pre-meditated.