Desensitised to the wickedness
Maybe I watch too much CSI. Or Law & Order. Or any number of movies about crime, violence, murder and the just plain wickedness that human beings are capable of. My first reaction to this story was so what. It’s another story of an easily influenced teenager blaming their evil acts on the media. In this case, a book about a British serial killer who used poison on his victims.
A Japanese teenage girl who poisoned her mother and kept a blog diary of her worsening condition is being sent to reform school.
The fact that she recorded the entire experience on her blog is also not that surprising. I’ve seen many weird shit on blogs in the past, including the girl in Singapore who did a very graphic and gory story of her slicing her wrists and then being taken to hospital.
Only on the second read of the above story, did it hit me. The girl didn’t even want her mother to die.
A senior investigative official was quoted as saying by Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun: “She did not hold a grudge against her mother – she just wanted to do an experiment.”
More at BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Ruling on Japan poison-diary girl. Also Schoolgirl blogger poisons mother in homage to killer – World – Times Online, and Graham Young – serial poisoner is Japanese teen killer’s idol – New Criminologist. The last two links contain excerpts from her now defunct blog.
The fact that she only did it because she was curious gave me chills. She was detached from reality enough to not realise the consequences of her actions. It’s depraved indifference. Then I got a further thought – isn’t that the same as my indifference to the story at first? I mean I had brushed it off as something to be expected in this big wicked world that we live in.
Maybe it has been a long day but I don’t know what to think. Too tired to analyse this now. The only good news of the story is that the mother did not die.
(Thanks for the story, Tina!)
Added May 2, 8:41am
The mother did not die but she hasn’t regained consciousness either. More at Girl’s deadly blog – World – smh.com.au.
She has classic symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder, better known as psychopathy.
Oh, and the fact that you’re aware of the seriousness of the situation and that it gives you the “chills”, probably suggests you’re not a psychopath. =)
I always wonder how people end up like that. A switch in the brain? A muddle of chemicals in the body? Some sort of emotional or mental trauma as a youngster?
yikes!
Andrew: I’m glad to know that – that I’m not a psychopath that is.
Cherry: probably a muddle of chemicals in the brain which is the most unpredictable of all.
Herman: indeed.