Sunday Comix (Journal Entry the Fourth)
2000-08-01 - Written 2000-2-20
Thoughts:
Some people care if they live, and appreciate life, but also care about their death and its impact. These are your scientists, politicians, and leaders.
Some people care about their own life, but wouldn't care if they died. These are the soldiers, the patriots, heroes, and terrorists.
Some people don't care if they're alive, but would care if they died. These are the everyday people that shape society, never giving a thought to how much they take for granted.
Some people do not care about their own life or death. The are the philosophers, the depressed, the insane, and the people who try and fail.
Some people never live, and die before they are truly born.
Sometimes I Think
Sometimes I think of what goes through the head of the maniac, the murderer, the suicide victim, or the thief. What makes a murderer? What forms the thoughts and actions of the thief? By what reason do the suicidal justify their actions? Does the maniac think coherently to himself, when he's alone in the darkness of his one-room shack? Are the actions taken by these "criminals" influenced more by their environment or their natural-born instincts? Are their actions any different from the everyday routines that the everyday person is subject to?
Sometimes I think that a murderer is one who kills another person, that a thief is influenced by his uncontrollable greed, that the suicidal are chronically depressed individuals that worked towards their miserable life, and so deserve what they got. That the maniac is a threat to society, and should be killed, because we don't want him making our fair nation into a slime pot where any Tom Dick and Joe can leech of the government and not give anything back. The actions portrayed by these criminals seem to be brutish acts of the weak-willed and immature beings lacking in the mind and body, not truly fit to be known as human.
Sometimes I think that a murderer is a person who is murderous, or in the habit of threatening someone's life. A thief may be a normal person, who needs a little extra money to feed the family in the alley, and is struggling to make ends meet while looking for a small job in the garbage dispensary business. Perhaps the suicidal figure there is no real point to life, and that they will die sooner or later anyway. The maniac might just want attention for the times when it was never given, all the times that something wonderful went unnoticed. The influence of any criminal's life is most likely a combination of genes and environment, with a trend in traumatic situations and bad upbringing by their "normal" parents. An action can be considered an action, no mater what it is, because each person must do their own thing.
Sometimes I think about how a murderer might see a victim as a medium, a piece of raw clay with which to mold in an expression of the self. The thief might want to show off the talents that have been practiced many long nights, honed to a fine edge, so that the kleptomaniac can get away with his prizes and a rush of adrenaline, which has become a peaceful addiction. The suicide victim may have found true happiness for once in a twisted life, and feel compelled to get off the roller coaster while a smile still resides on their face. The maniac does talk to himself, and when he does, he doesn't hear babble, but the melodious theories of four-dimensional physics and code-breaking algorithms. The instincts that they act on my be the same as the Painter and Philosopher, the Architect and the Figure Skater. But their actions are different from the everyday person's, they are full of light and color, creativity and withheld ambitions to such an extent that their work is considered a crime.
