Through compassion,
the naked hermit reflects upon his inner self.
He slays his own self, instead of slaying others.
—Siri Guru Granth - Ang 356
I’m on a streak of watching serial killer shows—Mind Hunters, Sons of Sam, The Unabomber—and I’m fascinated by the psychology behind why these people did what they did. The more I study trauma healing, the more I heal my own past, the more I can see how extreme environments create psychopaths, and—dare I say—even find some compassion for them.
I can’t help but wonder, if I were exposed to the same conditions, could I have turned my life around? It’s easy to ride your high horse of ethics and morals now, but to dissolve your own reality and question what would really happen is another story.
Surely there are paths to choose in life, and no one is excusing their behaviors, but can society admit that it’s partially responsible for churning out such monsters?
The Unabomber is a perfect example—born a happy baby until he fell ill in his first year of life, where he was hospitalized for months, left almost completely alone because the doctors wouldn’t allow his parents to visit more than twice a week. After that, he was never the same.
What kind of abandonment issues does that imprint on a child at their most impressionable age? The kind that drives a man to become an ice-cold killer hellbent on tearing down a society?
Without the backstory, you see an evil man set on creating chaos, but examine the details and you find a resentful child motivated by pain.
Was there any path to healing such trauma? Would regular therapy have even worked? Could, perhaps, the psychedelic treatments we see healing trauma today have reversed his past, were it not deemed illegal before he set off the first bomb?
You have to ask: Did Ted Kaczynski terrorize the system, or did the system terrorize Ted?
Where am I going with this, you wonder? Me too.
Perhaps it’s an exercise in the deepest form of compassion.
Perhaps it’s a promotion for the legality of psychedelic therapy.
Perhaps it’s just a subtle advertisement for various Netflix films.
The world may never know. All you can do is pop yourself a bowl of popcorn and observe.