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IS it all in the mind?
THE mere thought of the sequence of events sends shivers down my spine.
Enthusiastic moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado, were watching the first show of The Dark Knight Rises — the much awaited Batman movie. Suddenly a masked man in full body armour entered the theater. After hurling tear gas grenades at the crowd,
he began shooting indiscriminately, using multiple firearms. A dozen innocent men, women and children were killed and fifty eight more injured!
The scenario gets even more bizarre. The shooter was identified as James Holmes, a PhD student in the University of Colorado. When arrested in a back parking lot, he informed the police that he had booby trapped his apartment with explosives, thus endangering the lives of his neighbours! The most puzzling aspect of the appalling tragedy is that there is no apparent motive for Holmes' ruthless actions.
We cannot jump to conclusions about Holmes' intention or behaviour. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty -- despite the incriminating eyewitness evidence against him. In any case, this column is not a commentary on Holmes' guilt or otherwise. I felt compelled to write about the incident because of two reasons. First, I was deeply affected by the tragedy and my thoughts reach out to the families and friends of the victims. Secondly, the senseless killings prompted me to ask: what is it that makes a seemingly "regular guy" suddenly go off the rails?
Media pundits are desperately searching for a motive for the rampage killing. Apart from a few feeble attempts at advocating gun control, much of their discourse is focused on the mental health of the gunman. Psychiatrists and criminologists are making educated guesses about what exactly went on inside the accused shooter's head in the hope that they might find a clue to why he unleashed his anger and hatred on innocent movie viewers who had done him no harm. Some have even gone so far as to claim that by understanding the behavioural pattern of the gunman, we may be able to identity future mass killers. Frankly, I find this hypothesis far-fetched. The point is, if we isolate every depressed or slightly unhinged person as a potential killer, we will be living in a world of suspicion and fear. Again, one doesn't need to be a psychiatrist to understand that all mentally unstable persons don't react to situations in the same way.
One wonders what is it that makes one human being sacrifice his own life to save a life, while another destroys life at his whim and pleasure?
Interestingly, history sheds some light on errant human behaviour albeit no consistent pattern is discernible. The ancient Indian emperor, Ashoka (304-232 BC), is remembered for his radical transformation from a bloodthirsty and cruel king to a tolerant and benevolent ruler. According to Buddhist legend, this change came about when Ashoka witnessed the death and devastation he had caused in a battle to conquer a neighbouring state. As the king walked through the battle field, he was mortified by the sight of the mutilated dead bodies. The brutality of his own actions filled him with remorse and he adopted the Buddhist principle of non-violence, which he practiced and propagated for the rest of his life.
At the other end of the historic spectrum is the case of Nadir Shah, the Persian king, who invaded India in 1739. During his occupation of the capital, Delhi, there was a skirmish in which some of Nadir's troops were attacked and slain. The invader king flew into a rage and ordered the indiscriminate massacre of the city's inhabitants. As a result some 30,000 Indians were slaughtered! Nadir Shah never suffered remorse for his brutal actions and lived to fight many more bloody battles. The story goes that once when Nadir was told that there was no war in paradise, he asked: "How can there be any delights there?"
The foregoing tales demonstrate that different men deal with their inner demons through different means and actions. There is no "one size fits all" formula that can explain human cruelty. But, thankfully, there are numerous instances of human sacrifice and selflessness to restore our faith in the innate goodness of man. For instance in the case of the Golorado shootings we learned about the young man who died protecting his girl friend from the gunman and the 13-year-old teenage girl who tried to save a child, risking her own life!
One wonders ... what is it that makes one human being sacrifice his own life to save a life, while another destroys life at his whim and pleasure? What is it that makes the difference? Is it genetic predisposition or a nurturing social and family environment or a more advanced system for detecting and treating psychiatric illnesses?
May be the answer lies in Shakespeare's Macbeth. When Macbeth asks for a cure for his Lady to "raze out the written troubles of the brain," the doctor responds: "Therein the patient must minister to himself."
The writer is a renowned Rabindra Sangeet exponent and a former employee of the World Bank.