thank you for qualifying that, as my mind really did go straight to Ibsen when you said that.

anyway, I thought that providing such a kind alternative for such a depraved guy was really very insightful. sometimes the predators are victims themselves, and sometimes we forget to think about why they do what they do. I mean, I believe very strongly in personal responsbility, and you can't blame your behavior on the past or on other people. however, he seemed to be genuinely off-his-rocker crazy, and putting him in that dream not only prevented him from harming anyone else, but it addressed the psychological trauma that had made him want to hurt people. very fitting.

While I did love, and feel every touched by -though that may have been the Wilde reference - the manner in which Morpheus, through his mortal conduit, Mr Gaiman, delivered a unique form of restorative justice upon Funland, I don't agree, can't, really, with apologist rationales for what sex-offenders inflict upon their victims (by that rationale, myself and many others I know would be perpetrator/victims). No, honestly, and this is a subject - as you're probably aware by now - that I have investigated and pursued (to the best of my ability to do so): while the majority of sex-offenders, especially paedophiles, claim to have been the victims of abuse themselves - in a puerile attempt to exonerate themselves - very seldom are any of those claims actually verified. Additionally, and I have - I'm marginally intelligent, so, perfectly capable of passing myself of as a sympathetic ear - first-hand experience to draw upon, I have NEVER heard any sex-offender offer even so much of a modicum of remorse or concern for the trauma he (and they are predominantly male) has inflicted upon his victims. Surely, from a purely humane and empathetic standpoint, someone who had truly been a victim would, despite whatever he may have done, despite self-loathing, feel at least some degree of the pain and suffering that his victims have been forced to endure? Not wanting to make anyone nauseous here, but I once, in the psychiatric ward of HMP Maghaberry, listened to a predatory paedophile giving out about how his 12 year old victim had 'seduced' him. I hit him over the head with a pool cue. Mea culpa.

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someone who had truly been a victim would, despite whatever he may have done, despite self-loathing, feel at least some degree of the pain and suffering that his victims have been forced to endure?

If only that was how the human mind worked, but it isn't. And if someone is a psycopath, then it's a different kettle of fish entirely.

And if someone genuinely belives that a child 'seduced' them, then they have a mental disorder.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Domitella,

1st comment: then I must not be quite human (as if there was ever really any question of that).
2nd comment: so we don't have such a thing as evil, never mind pure evil, anymore, do we?
DM, I'm not being purely obstreperous for obstreperousness's sake here, but I don't buy into the 'mental disorder' for sex-offenders 'excuse.' Otherwise, all criminals would be able to furrow the same field - and I know that I (and pretty much all my ODC - Ordinary Decent Criminal (and some of them are far from either decent or ordinary) confederates are not regarded as being 'mentally ill' in any psychiatric/psychological (pyhsically cerebrally deformative/enviromentally debilitated sense). Just plain bad doggies. 'The dregs of society,' etc. (Apply your own hyperbole, as desired).

I finished Pulp this weekend. Boy, I'm glad I read it. I was pretty well turned off to Bukowski after the controversial Women, but I gave Pulp a shot and it was well worth it. It was very funny, constantly hilarious!

you will love hollywood!

quote:

Originally posted by sammael:
1st comment: then I must not be quite human (as if there was ever really any question of that).
2nd comment: so we don't have such a thing as evil, never mind pure evil, anymore, do we?
DM, I'm not being purely obstreperous for obstreperousness's sake here, but I don't buy into the 'mental disorder' for sex-offenders 'excuse.' Otherwise, all criminals would be able to furrow the same field - and I know that I (and pretty much all my ODC - Ordinary Decent Criminal (and some of them are far from either decent or ordinary) confederates are not regarded as being 'mentally ill' in any psychiatric/psychological (pyhsically cerebrally deformative/enviromentally debilitated sense). Just plain bad doggies. 'The dregs of society,' etc. (Apply your own hyperbole, as desired).

like I said, I do believe in personal responsibility. we make choices, and there ought to be consequences for those choices. that said, however, you can't ignore the fact that violence works cyclically. a child who was abused often becomes abusive. a child who suffered at the hands of an alcoholic parent often becomes alcoholic. a child who was sexually abused often becomes sexually abusive. that doesn't make it okay, and the cycle does have to stop, but that doesn't mean that I can't empathize with that person or that I label him or her as irredeemable. justice and personal redemption shouldn't be linked, and I'm not sure that I agree with the prison-as-rehab model, but I won't rule out personal redemption, no matter how atrociously a person has lived.

You're better than me, and, while I would like to be as fair-minded in this area as I try to be in all others, I suffered personally, and know quite a fe others - people who were abused as children adn women who were victims of rape - to ever be able to be objective about beasts and monsters. The scene in Beowulf where Ray Winstone says 'I'm here to kill your monster.' That's me, for real.

I am not so better than you. some things are easier said than done, is all.