firecat

I posted this as a comment to my previous entry, but I'm reposting it here.

I think it's dangerous to write off people who do stuff like that by saying they're "inhuman" or "insane." Humans have been killing innocent people in the name of hatred or religion since history began. To me that means it's entirely human to do it. That doesn't mean it is comprehensible. A great deal of what humans don't is incomprehensible, to me, anyway.

If I saw a shark eating someone I cared about, I would get very upset. The upset would take a lot of different forms. I might hate the shark, even though I know "rationally" that the shark is just doing its thing. I might be angry at the person for letting this happen to them, even though that might not make much sense either, they might not have had any way to avoid it. I might be angry at the government for not getting rid of sharks. I might be angry at the universe for creating itself in such a way that some beings have to eat other beings to survive. Or I might take a step away, take my upsetness and turn it against people who want to kill all the sharks. Or I might even take it in the direction of admiring the shark for being such a well honed hunting machine.

So far my expressions of such upset and anger aren't in the same league as those of people who fly jets into the WTC. But I think the differences are more in degree than in kind.

I've cheered action films where the bad guys get blown up. I've wanted people I thought were dangerous to get killed or punished or incapacitated.

Current Mood: gloomy
Current Music: Planes flying overhead

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From:

chorus-of-chaos.livejournal.com

That's part of my fear right now...there's that whole "let churches offer assistance and services and the government doesn't do it anymore" thing. No, the government needs to do it and the churches need to stay out of it. It could come to the point where you have to be a member of a church to recieve assistance if you get in bad straights, there won't be services available for those of us who "on the fringe" and don't conform, and there are some of us who simply can't.

I'm mentally ill, and if I had a dime for every time I've been told that there's nothing wrong with me and I just need to pray to God I would be a millionaire. That kind of mentality scares the crap out of me...because the fact is that my problems is a biochemical imbalance called Manic Depression, and if I take certain meds and with counselling to help me cope with the mood swings my life is at least bearable. If I don't have that available to me I am level 9 suicidal...which means on the verge of it at any given minute. There is a 20% chance that someone with Manic Depression will commit suicide. That's twice as high as any other mental illness. Then you add the fact that I have other mental illnesses and I'm looking at a 40% chance on any given day.

Continued...

From:

firecat

I'm mentally ill, and if I had a dime for every time I've been told that there's nothing wrong with me and I just need to pray to God I would be a millionaire.

Euuuwwwwwww. I have depression, and I haven't heard that one, but I have heard plenty of "you just aren't trying hard enough" and "if you would just try this diet, that supplement, the other exercise program..."

Oversimplified dogma is ugly even when it doesn't come from a religion.