Izzy Sommers, MD[ret]
7-140 Elmview Street, West
Welland , ON L3C 4K7 , Canada
April 30, 2008
The Editor, The Globe and Mail
Downtown Toronto
Email
RE: Astonishing Austrian Man
Dear Sir,
Please accept for publication the following essay on Astonishing Evil-Doing. I can assure you it is original, inasmuch as I just wrote it this morning before breakfast. If you cannot do so, please accept it, with my compliments, for a Letter to the Editor, if you wish.
Sincerely yours,
Izzy Sommers, MD
Your article on the bizarre Austrian family was indeed astonishing! I haven’t seen news like this since I read the bible a few minutes ago…
In my circle of friends and family, this story was seen as an aberration of reality. The most frequent lament was, “How could God let this happen?” There were also strong emotional comments about how an innocent life was destroyed and how some members of a dysfunctional family seem to see ‘themselves’ as “normal.” This is consistent with some of the comments made in the report in your paper. Apparently, the offending Austrian man was thought of as a good neighbour. Seemingly, other family members were willing to discuss the situation on a “rational” basis.
I have the irrational, emotional urge to kill this Austrian man and others like him! Yet I know I will not murder or maim anyone, at anytime, not in the past or present or future. I know this is part of my upbringing, and my own reasoning as an adult. In my view, there is no rational basis for discussion. The man is a social monster and must be seen as such by the majority of your readers. And yet, here he is, having a discussion, probably a calm discussion as viewed by an outsider, with some members of his family, some of whom must have known his potential for evil behaviour. We all have a potential for evil behaviour. Fortunately, most of us have the self-control and insight necessary to prevent such behaviour. Our teaching about evil-doing starts in utero when our mothers are attending a church service. Certainly it becomes a conscious series of lessons starting about age two. “Don’t do that!” is common. “Don’t even think about doing that!” is also common. These lessons in behaviour continue for one’s lifetime. Ministers, rabbis, fathers, mothers, spouses, bosses, co-workers, subordinates and children are forever telling us we can’t do evil or think evil or even watch evil. The consequences are dire and include damnation and imprisonment.
Those folks that are born without feelings for their fellow man, the psychopaths and sociopaths of the world, some 6% of the world’s population who are non-conformists, continue to do evil without feeling guilty. Often they have adapted a “conforming persona,” and are indistinguishable from their neighbours, kith and kin. These “successful” psychopaths are the serial killers, some presidents of corporations, some sports stars, some politicians, some doctors, some dentists and just about anyone in any walk of life. I imagine that this Austrian man was not unlike many other Austrian men in appearance and behaviour. I imagine that he was not unlike many other men in all nations in appearance and behaviour. I imagine that there are men presently doing evil, similar to this evil, all over the world. Like the Austrian man of your story, they are indistinguishable from most men in the neigbourhood, including the neighbourhoods of your readers. And they may never be exposed for who they are. They are universally very intelligent and adaptive.
Of course, there are psychopaths who chose not to play the game of conformity. These are the ones that are in the prison system, or about to be in the prison system of every country in the world. They openly use illegal drugs, and openly do harm to other people. It is common to see their pictures and exploits on the news. It is common to see them condemned by everyone.
So, if psychopathic and sociopathic people are the fringe of our societies, some 6% of the world’s population, about half conformists and unrecognizable and the other half not, will this bizarre behaviour in this one Austrian man be a lesson to the others and stop the evil-doing? The answer is a resounding “NO!” It never has and apparently, never will. It was in the Bible and it was in the real and mythological stories of every nation on Earth. And, I suppose it will be in the media, forever. Instances of apparent unchecked homicidal and destructive behaviour abound in the media. In fact, these are the stories that make most media flourish. We usually seek out these stories and clear out the “rags” at all newsstands and supermarkets. The clergy make dramatic pronouncements, about such stories, frequently to make a point about what is evil and what is not. All professional folks do this. All non-professional parents do this to their children to make them heed and prevent them from creating their own special hell for themselves and their families.
And yet, the evils continue. Whether it be the catholic priests who molest children, the Austrian man who imprisoned and impregnated his own daughter, the politician who orders a war that will obviously kill hundreds of thousands of people and destroy thousands of families, the business men who use child slavery, the organizations that enslave women for the huge sex trade in the world, the CEO who deliberately sabotages his own company for his own wealthy ends, thereby destroying an organization which fed hundreds of families, or the biker who manufactures lucrative amphetamines for youngsters knowing it will harm many teenagers and young adults, and their innocent families.
Those who do not read history are damned to relive it. I think that was said or quoted by Churchill and others. It applies here. To say that this Austrian man is exhibiting unprecedented evil behaviour is to deny that even the St. James Bible didn’t report such behviour, over and over again. My born-again, fundamentalist, Christian friends are not surprised. They would say, it started in the Garden of Eden and it will continue until the second coming and the total destruction of everyone except those that are born again who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven to take their places with Jesus and his Father and the Holy Spirit. Genesis, whether allegoric or real, describes in detail such men as the Austrian man. Moreover, the families of old are described like the present day Austrian family members who are willing to discuss the matter and come to some sort of agreement. Cain kills Abel and yet Cain and Seth, the remaining children of Adam and Eve continue in their pursuits of making a living and having children and making nations. God continues to see how humans are evil and yet He grants them each 120 years to work things out. Moreover, God sees that the women are fair and sends the men in heaven to mate with them. Despite this, and despite the prodigy who are called “Giants,” and translated by some as “Men of Renown,” evil behaviour abounds. God is remorseful and about to destroy the evil Earth and go elsewhere, when, fortunately for us, he finds favour in Noah and some of his family and some of the other critters.
No matter, despite the lessons of the Flood, evil continued throughout the bible. King David was a hero but also a blatant womanizer, willing to send Bathsheba’s husband to the front lines to be killed so that he may lie with his wife. King Solomon had a great reputation and became a powerful builder of the Israelites and yet he found time to dally with the Queen of Sheba. Jesus changed the world with his new covenant, “Love thy God and love thy neighbour and come with me to enter the Kingdom of Heaven
I am not a born-again Christian. I am a non-practicing Jew interested in History and Mythology. The story you reported:
'Astonishing' meeting of family members in Austrian incest case
The Associated Press
AMSTETTEN, Austria — Members of the Austrian family victimized by a man who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children with her have had an “astonishing” meeting, officials said Tuesday. Etc.
is not astonishing. It is not even very unusual or somewhat unprecedented. It is the human condition, the part of us that seeks to destroy and mutilate. It is the urge to do things that most of us realize is irrational. I would find it hard to do what Jesus suggested 2000 years ago. Would I as a Jew want anything other than an eye for any eye and a tooth for a tooth? However, I can see the evil in the blind following of my vengeful urges and I don’t’ do them. I will instead stand by and let the Austrian man’s peers and family decide what to do with him.
If I converted to Christianity, would I be able to forgive this man and take the “astonishing” quality out of the telling of the tale. I doubt it. I would still let his family and peers decide. In the long run, the life that has been wrested from the daughter is not recoverable. Her Posttraumatic Stress Disorder will be nightmarish and bizarre. Only a very special person could restore in her some modicum of “normalcy.”
I would be calmer converting to Toaism or some similar Eastern philosophy, I believe. The incident would be as a ripple on a pound where a stone has been dropped. The ripples will decrease in ever widening and assimilating circles and will lead eventually to a mirror-like surface of calm and tranquility.where only a fading memory of the stone dropping will persist for a finite length of time. The pond shall continue to accept and mollify any breaches of the peace, any evil-doing and anything “astonishing.”
Thank you for listening/
Sincerely,
Izzy Sommers, MD.
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