The Saddest Part is the Children

"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."

In a very horrific and indescribable tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, twenty-seven people, including eighteen children, were shot to death inside an elementary school, which is at least the sixteenth mass shooting to take place in America this year.

Beijing: A knife-wielding man slashed 22 children and an adult at an elementary school in central China on Friday, state media reported, the latest in a series of attacks on schoolchildren in the country.
The man attacked the children at the gate of a school in Chenpeng village in Henan province, the Xinhua news agency reported.

14^th December – two different countries, two different cultures, on opposite sides of the globe, a same tragedy took place in which the victims were sadly the children. Those innocent, young angles, some even from Kindergarten, who had not done any harm or caused misery to anyone.

"Wild animals never kill for sport. Man is the only one to whom the torture and death of his fellow creatures is amusing in itself." James Anthony Froud

What could be the motive or reason behind such mass killings, especially of children? Where have we humans gone wrong, as we are the only species who seem to suffer from such madness? Where in the dark hidden corner of that amazing thing called human brain, which churns out inventions after inventions, is this madness that enables individuals to commit such unimaginable horrors. Is there some unknown and undiscovered truth about our minds which has not yet been explored? Often people tend to be empathetic and loving, unless something snaps and turns them into demons. Was this hatred, revenge, sacrifice or just madness?

It is easy to ask questions but tough to find answers, even tougher to prevent such tragedies because those who commit such crimes do not come with any kind of labels. They are just like you and me, at least in appearance. Though we have come up with laws, rules, divisions between right and wrong, religions for moral policing and much more, we have somehow mutated and developed an unfortunate ability which will shut each of them off. Does history not have enough proof of this special ability of humans, when they have done unthinkable crimes which assure us that they had shut every their minds  off from thinking about consequences, distinguishing between right and wrong while causing pain to innocent victims?

At times like this when I think of parents who have sent their kids to school, and learn that they will never come back home because some person gripped by madness made them a target of his frustration, a deep fear lurks inside me that it could happen anywhere, anytime to anyone. Have I not seen people who in a particular moment if had access to weapons are capable to committing such horrendous acts? I have seen quite a few them, and also quite a few ugly expressions of rage. The hidden dark secrets of human mind lurk like a large sword on our heads, which can drop down anytime and cut us into pieces.

Erich Fromm who has done extensive research and written “The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”, says the extinction of fantasies and an aspect of necrophilism feeds the malignant aggression in human mind, which gives them a feeling that death and demolition leads to glory. Those who have been desperate or failures may think this as a mark they live on the world which would never be able to forget them. Fromm says these people often have dreams about dismembered parts or rooms full of corpses. They have trouble relating to others and tend to feel bored. Preferring dark colors, they’re often obsessed with devices of destruction or role models who carried out large-scale slaughters. They feel a smirking superiority toward others, often being insensitive about tragedies that involved a loss of life.

Psychology has a term pseudocommando  defined as “A type of mass murderer who kills in public during the daytime, plans his offense well in advance, and comes prepared with a powerful arsenal of weapons. He has no escape planned and expects to be killed during the incident. Research suggests that the pseudocommando is driven by strong feelings of anger and resentment, flowing from beliefs about being persecuted or grossly mistreated. He views himself as carrying out a highly personal agenda of payback. Some mass murderers take special steps to send a final communication to the public or news media; these communications, to date, have received little detailed analysis. An offender's use of language may reveal important data about his state of mind, motivation, and psychopathology. It is argued that revenge fantasies become the last refuge for the pseudocommando's mortally wounded self-esteem and ultimately enable him to commit mass murder-suicide”.

There are many more psychoanalytical explanations to mass murders which is scary, but my heart bleeds and asks “Why Children?”