What Makes People Do Terrible Things?
What makes people do terrible things? Obviously, I don’t have an answer to that question for anyone other than myself. I did the things I did out of fear and anger, sometimes out of a strong sense of self-preservation. But I’ve know people who were just stone cold killers. They didn’t have any obvious or logical reasons for the things they did. At least not any reason that I could figure out. I was also never able to figure out why some people would mess with them. But some did, and paid a very heavy price for it. I mean, couldn’t the people who messed with them sense the danger just by looking at them? Were they too stupid to have a sense of self-preservation? Or was their ego so fragile that they felt they had to prove some point to themselves or their friends by messing with them? There truly are some people out there that simply shouldn’t be messed with. The ones like that that I knew generally had a policy of not starting fights, but they never shied away from a fight either. If they were attacked or challenged, they responded with extreme violence.
As for myself, I don’t respond to verbal provocation anymore. It’s just not worth it. Especially in today’s world where the right to self-defense is being eroded more and more. I’m not willing to go to prison over words. It’s a whole different story if I’m touched or cornered but this is all for another time and post. Back to my original question, what makes people do terrible things. Some people do terrible things for no obvious or rational reason, go to prison for it, then get out and do it again. I don’t understand that. I’ve had my freedom taken away and I don’t want that to happen again. I’m smart enough to learn from my experiences and not repeat the same mistakes over and over again. I understand that trauma can cause people to get caught in self-destructive behavior loops and I wonder if that could explain some of it. But then there are others who are just simply mean as hell and nothing, aside from death, will stop them. They don’t seem to learn from mistakes or care about consequences. If they go to prison they only come out harder and meaner than they were before. These are the ones I don’t understand. Even if it was trauma that started them on that path, why do they seem utterly incapable of learning from mistakes like going to prison and getting out only to repeat the exact same mistakes and end up back in prison? I understand trying to fit into today’s society after long periods of incarceration can be overwhelming. The odds really are stacked against you. Employment and housing can be hard to come by which creates a situation of desperation. Once you’re in the justice system things just aren’t the same. Just because you get out of prison or even jail doesn’t mean you’re really free again. You have P.O.s to deal with, cops who are just looking for a reason to jam someone up, stigma from the public, all sorts of things to deal with. It takes a lot of determination and can be years before you can feel “free”. I know that’s why some actually choose to go back to prison, they just couldn’t make it out in the free world. It helps to have a support system in place.
But again, what about the ones who don’t have any trauma in their past to screw up their minds, who came from good families, never known poverty, and seemed to have had everything going right in their lives? Then they just, seemingly out of nowhere, do something utterly heinous. I don’t understand it and probably never will. I know this post probably reads totally random, but it’s something I’ve wondered about for decades. I understand what trauma can do, and I understand doing something out of self-defense or fear. I just don’t understand why some people become animals for absolutely no reason. I guess it will always remain a mystery to me. But something definitely goes awry in their minds. Something happens that causes them to believe they can do something terrible and get away with it. Maybe they were always crazy as hell and just didn’t act on it until they did.
Thanks for reading!