REFLECTIONS FROM THE REARVIEW
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ

Fixing the Machine

7/28/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The other day yet another inmate from CAMH escaped. Authorities sheepishly admitted to the general public, that this guy had killed someone with a meat cleaver a few years ago, but was pronounced not criminally responsible due to insanity. That old NCR ruling, it sure makes me feel better. That new neighbour won’t likely kill you, at least if he’s taking his meds. Don’t worry, they fixed the machine. 

Medical science can be like that - they think of the human being as an article of science to tweak and to fix. I am reminded occasionally when the issue comes up in the papers about assumed consent for organ donation. That means that you won’t have to sign that part on your driver’s license. If you (almost) die, they can feel free to hoik out your spare parts to install in somebody else’s machine. Problem is, the Harvard definition for “dead” is just that, a definition created for legal purposes. If you are really dead, those organs won’t be much use to them. Still, they want your spare parts to fix the machine. 

Recidivism is a hot topic, the discussion in the legal community whether someone will reoffend once paroled. Although the study of pathology has not yet discovered a ‘criminal’gene, such thinking is not far fetched. Meanwhile, a host of psychiatrists and social workers will claim to have ‘fixed’ someone who had previously committed a heinous crime. They see it as that simple, and for that reason they love the ‘not criminally responsible’ ruling because it means they can just tweak a few drugs and pronounce someone in proper chemical balance so as to be no longer dangerous. 

Inquests are interesting for this reason. An inquest occurs when something horrific has happened and no one is blaming anybody exactly, but they are fact-finding nonetheless to take precautions to prevent that thing from repeating itself. There is no finding of fault officially, but it does not stop people from coming all lawyered up. 

It also does not stop the kind of lunacy that even a child could see through. I remember one inquest regarding a dangerous multiple rapist and murderer who had escaped from a halfway house, stalked, raped and killed a young woman. One after the other, the team of psychiatrists who had ‘rehabilitated’ the man, got on the witness stand and pronounced, ‘Hey, it’s not my fault. Last time I checked, he was officially rehabilitated and socialized in positive ways toward women. Beats me why he killed somebody. You know, that guy we fixed him. We fixed the machine”. Of course, you might figure out that violent offenders are not stupid, even if they are nuts. They know which kind of right answers to feed social workers in order to gain the kind of freedoms that come with ‘rehabilitated’.

You get my drift. The scientific community loves to be sure of things. That includes the soft sciences like psychiatry. Still, they overlook the obvious, that the annals of crime are riddled with those who seem to have committed their crimes, very much on purpose. 

There was one famous case in Canada a few years ago. Vincent Li was riding on a Greyhound bus just west of Portage la Prairie in Manitoba. During the trip, he took it upon himself, to approach fellow passenger Tim McLean. He wasn’t asking for a cigarette. He pulled out a large knife, and to the horror of fellow passengers, cut off Tim’s head. After that he proceeded to cut off and eat parts of Tim, until properly apprehended by the authorities. You might be happy to know, that Vincent Li was not criminally responsible for being nuts. They just had to find the appropriate meds to fix the machine. He was released to the general public in 2015 with a name change so that his new neighbours would be nice to him. And with a bit of luck and the proper regimen of drugs, he won’t soon cut off anybody else’s head. 

But wait, there’s more. Part of the finding that Vincent Li was nuts, had to do with the fact that (like many others) he heard voices telling him to commit the crime. It is a curious phenomenon. Scientists who care about data might find it interesting that in almost all such cases, the voice leads to one thing. Destruction. Kill your parents, kill somebody, kill yourself. Now that is remarkably consistent. It might make them want to investigate a little further. 

In case you were wondering, what I am getting at, is the problem of EVIL. Volitional evil. Things done on purpose. Since Cain slew his brother Abel, it has haunted mankind. That story in the Bible doesn’t talk about not criminally responsible. It says Cain slew his brother Abel because he was pissed off and jealous. No matter what people might say about the Bible that it is not proper history, and not at all scientific, it seems to have hit the nail on the head when it comes to the basic problem of evil. 

The Bible also recognizes a third agent in human affairs, one whose intent is to kill, harm and destroy. He has been the enemy of God’s perfect intentions since the beginning. According to that narrative, the author of Evil has been defeated and will be dealt with in God’s own time. Meanwhile he still has opportunity to wreak havoc on earth where he may. Not a very scientific explanation, for those who like science.

Still, when somebody who hears voices from another dimension telling them to kill and destroy shows up next door, you had better hope that officials are offering up a solution more solid than claims to have fixed the machine with a drug regimen. Have they fixed the human heart? I would have to really be a man of faith to believe that story. 
0 Comments

    UNCOMMON
    ​THOUGHTS

    ...about common things. 
    ​

    Categories

    All
    Accidental Story
    Activist
    Adjusting The Recipe
    Adult Admission
    A Flannery O'Connor Moment
    After The Tiger
    A High Christology
    A Little Bit Redneck
    A Little Lower Than The Angels
    All About Widgets
    Allah Wallahi
    Al Low Vs The Man
    All Saints
    A Long List Of Thank Yous
    Amazing Grace
    A Month Of Sundays
    An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    Antique
    A Pile Of Wood And A Plan
    Are We There Yet?
    Artifact
    At Hand
    Attending To Beauty
    At War
    Bad-Ass Outlaw
    Bad Faith
    Badlands
    Baked Boiled Or Fried?
    Balcony Lady
    Beautiful By Design
    Beauty For Ashes
    Being Human
    Belial
    Beneficence
    Beware Of Men Who Cry
    Big Buts Of The Bible
    Blessed Are The Pew Warmers
    Bound For Beauty
    British Invasion
    Bronte Oak
    Bucket List
    But If Not
    But Is It Sandable
    But Is It True?
    Buyer Beware
    Camp Of The Unknown God
    Carlton The Delivery Man
    Chaos
    Cherry Top
    Class Monitors And Safety Patrols
    Clothing Optional
    Cloud Of Witnesses
    Contra Mundum
    Couldn't Not
    Counting The Cost
    Covid Cut
    Creed
    Crucified Man
    Dangerous
    Dangerous Chemicals Of My Youth
    Dieu Et Mon Droit
    Different Drum
    Distressed
    Doing The Lord's Work
    Do It Yourself
    Do-Over
    Do Something!
    Dreaming And Doing
    Edifice
    Egging Armour Hill
    Even As I Am Known
    Even Me
    Even Stranger Things
    Fallow Season
    Family Bible
    Family Business
    Fellowship Of The Brush
    Field Of Faith
    First World Chair
    Fit As You Go
    Fixing The Machine
    Flawed People
    Flock Of Angels
    Follow The Money
    For A Time Such As This
    Fortissimo!
    French Horn
    From A Distance
    Frozen Man
    Funny Words
    Genetic Lottery
    Gifting
    God Calling...
    Good Bones
    Good God Almighty
    Good Government
    Good Luck Skippy
    Gott Mit Uns
    Greatest Is Love
    Gross Anatomy
    Grunt
    Haka!
    Hammer And Tong
    Hands And Eyes
    Happy Rooster
    Hearing Voices
    Hello My Juan
    Helping God Show Off
    Hidden In The Secret Place
    High Dudgeon
    History Bites
    Hockey Tape And Rubber Bands
    Holy Disorder
    Home Economics
    I AM
    I Cannot Help You
    I Could Be Wrong
    I Dare You
    Idiots
    If You Build It
    If You Get There Before I Do
    Im Khalil
    Impossibly Cute
    In A Strange Land
    Incarnation
    Influencer
    In My Own Time
    Inner FIfteen Year Old
    In The Details
    In The Usual Manner
    Invader
    Judge Not
    Just A Few Words
    Justice
    Just In Our Own Time
    Just Like God
    Keep Calm And...
    Keeper
    Keeping House
    Keeping On Keeping On
    KJV
    Knock Yourself Out
    Kumbaya
    Kybo
    Lamentations
    Lemonade
    Less Is More
    Let Me Count The Ways
    Let's Go RIde A BIke
    Linked In
    Little Boxes
    Liturgy
    Lo And Behold
    Logos
    LOL
    Looking Back On The Forward Looking
    Looking For Some Real Good News
    Lord Jesus It’s A FIRE
    Lorem-ipsum-dolor
    Lost-and-found
    Luck Of The Stable
    Magical
    Make-a-baby-laugh
    Make It Nice
    Maker
    Maker’s Mark
    Ma-pitom
    Marbles-in-spring
    Measure Of A Man
    Memory Box
    Men In Loincloths
    Men's Barber Shop
    Middle Ground
    Middleman
    Mistakes All In
    Montreal Spice
    More
    Morse Code
    Mosh Pit
    My Neighbour
    Myth Of Sisyphus
    My Wife The Movie Star
    Name Calling
    Natural
    Neighbour
    New Day
    New Wine
    Next To Godliness
    Next Year Country
    No Fancy Diagram Needed
    No King But Caesar
    None Deserving
    North Of Ground Level
    Nothing Particularly Important
    Nothing Personal
    Not Waiting For Godot
    No Wonder
    Oak
    One Coffee At A Time
    One Smart Farmer
    One Thing
    On Richard Rohr
    On The Lam
    On Writing Clearly
    Ordinary Time
    Out Of Egypt
    Over And Again
    Paint Over That
    Paper Boy
    Particularity
    Particulate Matter
    Part Of The Tradition
    Pater Noster
    Patina
    Pelagian
    Perfect
    Perfect Crime
    Perfect Ride
    Philosemite
    Pilate's Dilemma
    Pinky Swear
    Place At The Table
    Playing Favourites
    Pop-a-corn!
    Potato War
    Preaching Parrot
    Predators
    Prince
    Print Shop
    Prisoner Of Jesus Christ
    Proof Text
    Psalm 1
    Psalm 19
    Put Away The Books
    Putting Up The Lights
    Reduce Reuse Recycle
    Restoration
    Rosemary And The Drug Dealers
    Sandwich
    Say My Name
    Scars
    Second Naiveté
    Seeing Red
    Seven Sixty-Five
    Shouting From The Areopagus
    Shrove-tuesday
    Silent-witness
    Small-c
    Small-graces
    Sore-afraid
    Squat
    Starting With What Is True
    Street Food
    Superstar
    Take-a-punch
    Takedown
    Talking-head
    Talking Your Parents Down From The Ledge
    Telling-the-story
    Thanksgiving
    The-best-for-last
    The Bliss Of Ignorance
    The Church Invisible
    Thecrossingking
    The Evil Day
    The-general
    The Great Mystery
    The-joys-of-hash
    Themysteryofthecheshirecat
    The-particularity-of-place
    The-quickening
    Therefore-choose-life
    The Table-ness Of A Table
    The Way
    Though One Be Raised From The Dead
    Thoughts On Sixty
    Three Jews And A Gentile
    Thrice Wise
    Throwing The Spaghetti Against The Wall
    Timeless
    Time Vs Time
    Tim Falladay
    Tims No More
    Tonto And Me
    Touching Stones
    Trevor’s Super Bad Day
    Trick Key
    Tubafore!
    Unbelievable
    Under A Bush? HELL NO!
    Uninvited
    Unspectacular
    Use Gently
    Watching Paint Dry
    Wayside Chapel
    Weaker Sex (?)
    We Stand On Guard For Thee
    We Were Waiting
    What Are You Prepared To DO?
    What Lazarus Knew
    When Cows Fly
    When Odd Becomes Interesting
    Why I Still Like Cowboys
    Witness
    Woke
    Wood Show
    Woodworking Lessons In Empathy
    Words
    Words... The Right Tool
    Worthy Adversary
    You And Me And Rob

    RSS Feed

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit
Picture
  • Home
  • Hello and Welcome
  • Blog
  • Random Gatherings
  • My Book
  • FAQ