Boredom leads a person into wanting a life of self-fulfillment; people want to feel something. When a person is bored they often have nothing to do, but what may shock you is that some people express their boredom through killing. It has become more and more common for killers to blame their killings on the fact that they were bored. We think of the suburbs as “safe,” yet horrific crimes have happened there. Bill Briggs, author of the article, Boredom Blamed for Murders: A True Killing Impulse states that, “A handful of young homicide suspects and convicted killers have in recent years told authorities they were pushed by boredom to willfully take a random life”(1). To kill is to express their method of boredom by fulfilling a form of excitement and release. The question is: can the act of tediousness and true boredom, especially in the suburbs, really push a person to the point of killing, or is it just an excuse?
Boredom makes us do crazy things. When you are bored, it is an act of idleness and listlessness. Sometimes we try to alleviate our state of dullness by performing acts that make us excited and give us a surge of energy. According to
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Doctor Warren Rule, author of, Unsqueezing the Soul: Expanding Choices By Reframing and Redirecting Boredom, “boredom fills the emergency room, as exemplified by shooting, speeding vehicles, drug usage, and impulsive acts”(327). All of these acts make us feel something other than boredom, but there is a huge difference between cracking open an ice-cold beer and grabbing a knife and stabbing an innocent man. In 2010, “six teenagers fatally stabbed a 25-year-old pizza chef in New London, Connecticut. They told authorities they did it because they were bored” (Briggs). What can make a person so full of boredom that they want to kill someone? What about Suburbia: the famous residential areas on the outskirts of a city or large town, home of the working upper to middle class? Scholar Christopher Caldwell, author of Levittown to Littleton: Seclusion of Affluent Suburbs Prevents Normal Socialization For Children says, “they all look the same, the suburbs were synonymous with conformity.” The children of suburbia are experiencing boredom each and every day; if it is not just through not having anything to do, it is through sameness. Each house looks the same, you are secluded from the outside world by highways and interstates and the adolescent’s parents are gone working at their nine to five jobs. You might be asking, well what is at stake with the children of Suburbia? Well, violence and peoples lives are at stake. Children are left home alone where they have to find something, anything to do to pass the time. They might ponder over to the unlocked gun case and check out Dad’s gun collection or go to the kitchen and see how hard you have to push in order to get the knife to slice through a watermelon. The scariest thing is that with adolescents trying to find excitement in anything, even killing, you never know if some one will walk into the school with a gun or weapon. With boredom comes curiosity. Their boredom becomes heightened and they begin to experiment in this ‘boring’ environment. Edward Luttwak writes about the shocking seclusion of the American upper middle class is his book, Turbo-Capitalism: “There is a lot of lonely space not only between but inside the ideal dwellings of the American dream, the veritable mansions of the richest suburbs which mostly house only one ever-so-busy male and as busy a female, with surviving parents in their own retirement abodes, distant children pursuing their budding careers, and a few friends, whose degree of loyal commitment might rate them as mere acquaintances in other climates.” If you were surrounded as an adolescent by houses similar to this one, then where would you find the stimulation needed to escape boredom without exploring the unknown? You would not and that is why there is such an issue with boredom in Suburbia, everyone is trying to find something stimulating the pass the time. Marilyn Manson addressed the shooting of Columbine and the percussions and analysis of it in his article, Columbine: Whose Fault Is It? “It is no wonder that kids are growing up more cynical; they have a lot of information in front of them. They can see that they are living in a world that’s made of bullshit. America has become on big mall, and because of the Internet and all of the technology we have, there’s nowhere to run. People are the same everywhere.” With sameness comes dullness. When things are dull, it is so easy to become bored, there is nothing keeping you stimulated or exciting you. Phil Chalmers, author of Inside the Mind of a Teen Killer speaks about the ‘thrill’ of murder, “ the state of listlessness may have ignited an urge for lethal excitement. Thrill killing is killing someone to experience the act of murder. Just for fun.” If you are not a psychopath you might be thinking, how can killing be an act of fun? Well these adolescents, many would argue, are just trying to find a way to alleviate their boredom, just like you or me would switch on our favorite movie. Something boredom may also relate to, especially in the suburbs, is rule breaking.
To break the rules is to go outside of what is the norm and was is looked down upon. I am sure many would not argue that to kill is a form of breaking the rules, since the act of murder is breaking the rules of not just the household but the law and when you strike out in violence, the consequences are far more extensive than being put in a time out. Peter Toohey speaks about rule breaking in his novel, Boredom: A Lively History, “Rule breaking is a way to escape the chronic boredom of modern life. Chronic boredom bodes no good” (75-78). The adolescents who are living in the same houses, experiencing the exact same boring lives of suburbia, some may argue, may be at more risk of sticking out of the norm and breaking the rules of
society. If it were so easy to alleviate boredom, then there would not be such a big problem regarding it. We would all just have some magic button to push anytime we feel the urge of true boredom and it would go away. Unfortunately, that is not how boredom works. Everyone has his or her own way of making the tedious, idleness disappear. For some it may just switching on the television, but for others, making that feeling go away takes a lot more effort and cause for experimentation. Which brings me to the final point of addressing my earlier question, how can boredom make such a strong urge of wanting to kill someone? Well, people want a spark of excitement and when someone is bored they do not feel the stimulation of pleasure, so the exhilaration and adrenaline rush killing brings, may be their provoker.
Murder on a Sunday morning is a documentary of an unfortunate mishap with the legal justice system that happens one of many times. In Jacksonville, Florida the year of 2001, May 8th there was a horrific scenery at Ramada hotel. A women named Mary Ann Stevens and her husband were tourists, while leaving their room early Sunday morning around 9AM a gunshot fatally killed Mary Ann and ended the couple’s vacation. When cops arrived at the scene and investigated they took notes on what the suspect looked like from the husband, “ The suspect is skinny black male dark shorts unknown shirt on foot running south bound…. Fishlike hat on.”- cop at the scene. When the cops were driving around they’ve spotted an African American
Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as often as I did, why they felt so bored, they always gave me the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were
The Murderers Are Among Us, directed by Wolfe Gang Staudte, is the first postwar film. The film takes place in Berlin right after the war. Susan Wallner, a young women who has returned from a concentration camp, goes to her old apartment to find Hans Mertens living there. Hans took up there after returning home from war and finding out his house was destroyed. Hans would not leave, even after Susan returned home. Later on in the film we find out Hans was a former surgeon but can no longer deal with human suffering because of his traumatic experience in war. We find out about this traumatic experience when Ferdinand Bruckner comes into the film. Bruckner, Hans’ former captain, was responsible for killing hundreds
The quote stated in the bible “Money is the root of all evil,” has been argued for many years. This statement is claiming that, the need of money can create a monster out of anyone. As in this story where the merchant is forced to make a decision due to the lack of money he owns. He chooses to sell his only son to a black dwarf to become rich. This trade will become the seed in turning his own child into a monster. Heinel does start off with a great heart, but due to a series of events it’s almost as if he’s forced to be a monster. Constantly, being the victim of each situation undoubtedly changes who Heinel starts off as and who he ends as in this story. He truly becomes the Monster of Golden Mountain. As the theory in “Serial Killers” by Andrew Cooper & Brandy Bale Blake, shows that growing up in bad environments can potentially make a monster out of anybody.
Are serial killers born with the need to kill, or is it something that they learn to do as they grew up? There are many theories as to why people become serial killers, but most are associated with the Nature vs. Nurture Theory. Many side with the nurture theory believing that serial killers are created from horrible childhood traumas like unstable households and abusive parents. While other people choose the opposite side of the spectrum: biological factors. Psychologist try to examine the brain of a serial killer through the use of MRI scans, conversations, and genetics in order to find abnormalities in the brain. Whichever side of the theory one may take, one has to be aware that not all serial killers are the same. Serial killers are separated into three or more different typologies: psychopathic sexual sadist, visionary serial killer, and the mission serial killer (Miller, Part I, 2013).
A killer is not born. A killer is made. However, we are all born with the potential to kill, and any one of us can be made into a killer. It might take a lot to drive us to murder, but some people are simply more susceptible to the idea than others. People tend to believe that serial killers are mentally ill individuals, however, more often than not, they are rational beings who have suffered tremendously. Often, we cannot tell who is a serial killer. It could be the person standing next to you, and you would not have the slightest indication. Serial killers are shaped by isolation from their peers, neglect from loved ones or caregivers, and copious amounts of physical and psychological abuse as children.
There is a great distinction that separates serial killers from other murderers, and this is their motives to kill. Homicides are generally committed due to moments of rage and anger, or disputes from family problems, financial difficulties, gang violence, and conflicts between lovers and between friends. "A psychokiller, I should make clear, is not a regular murderer. A murderer has a vendetta, a nice specific personal thing against his victim". In contrast to this, the victims of serial killers, more often than not, are strangers that have never been encountered before the event of the killing. Serial killers are driven by instinct and a desire to kill.
The question I always ask my self is what brings people to want to do drugs? What makes them want to poison their body? When the person knows the health risks of doing drugs, I understand that doing drugs makes you high and feel good, but what in their life is so bad that makes them want to poison their body. In the article listening to boredom by Joseph Brodsky, he says that boredom is the cause of drug habits in people. Because he says that people are trying to escape from it by abusing drugs. I happen to disagree with this however. I feel like that boredom isn’t the cause of drug abuse because I then everyone would be a drug addict. I think it is because of people’s curiosities, and because of that it makes people want to try things ...
Serial killers are the byproduct of many different things: trauma, death of loved ones, abuse, neglect, adoption, and even witnessing abuse (Are Serial). Serial killers have had to endure a massive amount of something such as trauma or abuse to an unimaginable extent to become what they are; the extent of the abuse, the trauma, the psychological damage they endure is incomprehensible to many. The destruction of one’s innocence can occur at any given time in his or her life, but he or she is more impressionable in his or her youth by the negativism of someone else’s actions (Scott, Shirley L. What Makes Serial Killers Tick ~ Childhood Event). People are susceptible to what they endure in their adolescence, and cruel upbringings, such as that of a serial killer’s, are possibly the determinant of their future.
At the start of his article, Gatto explains his career in education. He begins by saying where he has taught, and how he is a thirty-year teacher. He then goes on to explain the factor of boredom, and how it affects not only students, but also teachers. It is a common factor within most if not all people, which causes lack of concentration, and apathy. Gatto tells us how his grandfather used to tell him to never even bring up the idea of boredom, and if he was bored than it was his own fault and only he can fix his own boredom. The author then links boredom to low energy, and brings up how most of his students would often claim to be bored because they already know the subject, and find it stupid to be going over it so much. The students seem to only care about grades and not actually learning the material.
...ng what to do with their new found leisure time. Boredom ultimately results in the existential vacuum and has been found as an underlying factor in depression, aggression, and addiction.
Serial killers are only motivated by sex; this is a misconception because not all serial murders are sexually-based. There are many other motivations for serial murders, including anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking. For instance, a former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant and Lee Boyd Malvo killed primarily for anger and thrill motivations (“Serial Murder”). In addition, serial killers are all the same is also a misassumption. There are different type of serial murders including motives, visionary, mission-oriented, power/control, and hedonistic. Each has their own motivations and reasons to kill, but hedonists murdered for lust/sexual, thrill/rush, comfort/profit, or all three categories. First and foremost, a serial killer is defined
Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Son of Sam, the BTK Killer. The names and assumed names of these cold-blooded serial killers are forever branded into the cognizance of people everywhere. This is mainly due to the mass media coverage, including newspapers, movies, television specials and books. This media coverage brought to light that these killers were, on the surface, normal, successful, attractive, productive members of society – that is, until the time that their heinous crimes came to be discovered.
Norms can also be broken but violating these norms would be considered rude of disrespectful. Along with these norms there are also laws. Laws are the “binding rule created through custom or official enactment that defines correct behavior and the punishment for misbehavior” (Miller 2011: 175). The system of a law is more common among state type societies. State type societies such as Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, just to name a
Michael Sanders, a Professor at Harvard University, gave a lecture titled “Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? The Moral Side of Murder” to nearly a thousand student’s in attendance. The lecture touched on two contrasting philosophies of morality. The first philosophy of morality discussed in the lecture is called Consequentialism. This is the view that "the consequences of one 's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct.” (Consequentialism) This type of moral thinking became known as utilitarianism and was formulated by Jeremy Bentham who basically argues that the most moral thing to do is to bring the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number of people possible.