Goes to show you
It wasn’t an unpopular teenage loser living in his mother’s basement. It was a straight A medical student. It wasn’t an assault weapon, or even a gun. It was a bomb made of kitchen appliances and stuff you can buy at a hardware store.
After the school shooting, my Facebook page was covered with liberals ranting about gun control and psychological profiling. The idea was that preventing angry young men from buying guns, and making sure they are drugged into apathy, would keep school children safe.
People like to feel they can do something to prevent these horrors. That is understandable. But I don’t believe you can. They don’t happen often, but they will happen. This world is never going to be safe.
Ambiance 
LouiseM said,
April 21, 2013 at 12:12 am
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had done well academically in high school, but The New York Times reported that he was failing many of his courses at UMass Dartmouth. The Times said a school transcript showed seven failing grades over two semesters in 2012 and 2013, including Fs in Principles of Modern Chemistry, Intro American Politics, and Chemistry and the Environment. According to the transcript, Tsarnaev got a B in Critical Writing and a D and D-plus in two other courses.
“Seven failing grades over two semesters” is a warning light… blinking…blinking…blinking…
karen said,
April 21, 2013 at 7:14 am
I am told by a really good friend that worked in a psychiatric hospital that it is the denial of mothers that try to hide their children’s(sons)illness that cause the greater damage because when ~nothing is truly wrong here~ turns on these moms… it’s too late.
I don’t know if i believe that completely, but… when is the time to relinquish ~control~ over kids(our children) before they overwhelm us and rampage?
In this case, it’s ideology, right- not pathology? Or, illness. This behavior from these two brothers was learned… mother’s milk…
In Harry Potter, Madeye Moody hammers home ~constant vigilance~!! Except, who knew he was an imposter?
realpc said,
April 21, 2013 at 2:07 pm
I didn’t know about the failing grades. So maybe there was something wrong with him.
But it does show that stricter gun control is not the answer to violence.
realpc said,
April 21, 2013 at 2:14 pm
karen, I dont understand what you think their parents should have done. If your kid becomes a Muslim fanatic, should you turn them into the police, just in case they might become violent?
And if your kid seems to have psychiatric problems, are you supposed to get them drugged? Because that’s all psychiatrists do — give patients mind-numbing drugs. There are no cures for any psychiatric disorders.
Icepick said,
April 21, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Or perhaps he quit working his ass off at chemistry (which has the benefit of being very difficult and very boring) because he knew he had what was essentially a suicide mission coming up. Really, most kids find the idea of getting drunk and hoping to get laid during the weekend reason enough to skimp on the homework, imagine the distraction of planning to blow up eight year-olds and young women, along with throwing bombs at police and running over your dying brother with a car while trying to kill ALL the infidels. It’s amazing he had enough focus to bathe regularly.
LouiseM said,
April 21, 2013 at 2:47 pm
Who was funding this young man’s education, housing, transportation, meals, and entertainment? What responsibilities was he being asked to meet? What purpose in life had he been invited to realize? With whom did he experience a sense of belonging and connection?
Darkness is the absence of Light.
mockturtle said,
April 21, 2013 at 4:06 pm
PC, I agree with you. The world is never going to be safe and we shall never be able to prevent all acts of terrorism.
karen said,
April 21, 2013 at 4:54 pm
I’m just repeating what was told to me by someone who knew, from about 30yrs experience of working in a big mental hospital, the mental state of these folks. She seemed to think maybe the mom of the Newtown murderer was just barely… barely… coming out of the denial closet and seeking help for her son… but, wdik.
It could be wrong, absolutely. She claims that a lot of men were institutionalized because of their moms– and the women because of a man. I sure as hell don’t know- & i think you must know- real, that i am not a proponent of medication unless seriously needed, like my schizophrenic brother- who isn’t schizo at all w/meds.
Anyway- people will maim and kill others if there is a will.
Rocks abound.
realpc said,
April 21, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Yes, even without guns or bombs or pressure cookers, they can always fall back on rocks.
As for the psychiatric profession, well I really don’t know. A child who is disobedient and hard to handle could be locked up in a mental hospital and drugged. Millions of school children are now being drugged because they have too much energy (probably because they aren’t allowed to go out and run around at recess).
Sure drugs can make you feel better. That’s why people drink away their sorrows. That’s why hopeless people get hooked on narcotics. But haven’t we all heard that drugs are not the answer to life’s problems? Obviously, the psychiatrists haven’t heard that.
Yes sometimes you have to drug a schizophrenic who otherwise would have to be chained in a padded cell. Drugs are the chains of today. But everyone should really think hard before sending their kids to a psychiatrist.
LouiseM said,
April 21, 2013 at 9:18 pm
Because that’s all psychiatrists do — give patients mind-numbing drugs.
No, that’s not all psychiatrists do; some author books based on their experiences and research.
Dr Daniel Siegel: The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are, .
Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation
The Healing Power of Emotion: Affective Neuroscience, Development & Clinical Practice
Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body and Brain
Dr Curt Thompson: The Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections (A presentation of Siegel’s findings from a Christian perspective)
realpc920 said,
April 22, 2013 at 12:46 pm
Ok LouiseM, not 100% of all psychiatrists mostly treat their patients with mind-numbing drugs. Maybe only 99%.
And by the way, it isn’t their fault since there is no real understanding of mental illness.
mockturtle said,
April 22, 2013 at 1:37 pm
And what, pray tell, is your understanding of mental illness?
LouiseM said,
April 22, 2013 at 2:13 pm
There’s no real understanding of lots of things, realpc. Bits and pieces. Blinks. Observations. Theories. Conclusions…and Mystery, side by side.
Dr Gabor Mate ( MD, not a psych) is another who’s focused his work on understanding the broader context in which human disease and disorders arise.
Not all of what he says agrees with my reality, but I appreciate his approach.
If finding and applying the answers were easy, the enmity, disease, and disorder which has been present since the beginning of recorded human history would not continue to cause the confusion, pain and suffering that it does.
LouiseM said,
April 22, 2013 at 5:41 pm
With regard to “it goes to show you”, I’m not sure what the post goes to show, or who the “you” might be. Nonetheless, I appreciate the door of discussion that opened as a result.
An opinion regarding the realization of identity and values through relationship could also be drawn from this story:
One instance stuck in Ruslan’s memory which he later discovered from a friend who was there.
It was in 2007 one evening around midnight as Anzor came home from work to find the cleric in his kitchen.
Ruslan said: ‘It was all the same talking, God, God, how he’s talking to demons, how he’s an exorcist, how he’s healing people. Tamerlan was absolutely in his possession. All around people considered him just another prick.
‘Then my brother comes in from work, very late and Anzor is talking to his wife saying what is this person doing here so late?
‘Tell him to get the hell out. And she says: ‘You’d better shut up, this person is teaching wise things to your son’. This is the mother. After that Tamerlan went over his place, he changed his views. It started from people like that.’
Daily Mail/April 22
realpc said,
April 22, 2013 at 6:29 pm
“And what, pray tell, is your understanding of mental illness?”
Pray tell, do you mean if I say psychiatrists have no real understanding of mental illness, you think I’m saying I have a real understanding of it?
But as I have said before, my perspective is alternative science, and I do think you can find a better understanding of a lot of things from that perspective.
Mainstream science and medicine have gone down a certain path, which has restricted their perspective and understanding. Psychiatrists and neuroscientists believe (not every single one of them, but MOST) that the mind and the brain are the same thing. They are educated into materialism (the idea that we don’t have a soul or spirit, or anything except a body made out of a certain kind of matter).
mockturtle said,
April 22, 2013 at 7:17 pm
This is true to some extent. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy’, Hamlet We do have a lot to learn about the brain and what we call mental illness and I agree that there is a spirit and a soul as well as the physical brain to deal with.
realpc said,
April 23, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Then we agree mockturtle.
Parents whose teenagers seem potentially violent don’t really have any good options. And a certain degree of violent tendencies is normal and natural, especially in young men. They are genetically programmed to be the protectors of the tribe. We couldn’t make them all into wimps, and even if we could we shouldn’t.
But the potential for destructive senseless violence is another story altogether. And how can you differentiate normal from pathological potential violence?
I reathink it is very understandable if parents are reluctant to turn their sons into authorities, whether the police or the mental health professionals.
I know I seem to always blame everything on the progressives, but I do think the progressive ideology convinces people that life can and should be safe and comfortable for everyone at all times.
Of course I understand the desire to prevent senseless violence, and of course I think everything should be done that can prevent it. But progressives (in general) are really in denial about the limits of human powers.
mockturtle said,
April 23, 2013 at 6:57 pm
Many parents have pleaded with authorities and experts to help them with their unruly children only to be told there is nothing that can be done unless/until they actually harm someone. :-( Although I don’t have the answers, I have heard a lot of important questions.
When I worked on an acute psych floor, most of my patients were bipolars and schizophrenics who were off their medications. The excuses were as varied as the patients themselves. It is my contention that the medications used today are not ‘mind-numbing’ and, in fact, work quite well when they are taken as prescribed. But, IMHO, expecting someone with a severe mental illness to be personally responsible for his/her medications is unrealistic.
To add another dimension to the argument, I would add that dabbling in the occult, especially Satanism, is often a precursor to violent behavior. Whether it’s a cause-and-effect relationship or just an association, it cannot be ignored.