>>> Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org> 02/23/99 06:53PM >>>
Charles Brown wrote:
> Something like this always makes me think that the perpetrators feel inadequate themselves. How do we change the dog-eat-dog ethic of our society so that eight people care for this man and help him enjoy a party rather than this sad crime ?
>
>
Maybe the perpetrators feel inadequate, but it is equally likely they feel superior. then again maybe feelings of superiority come from inferiority??? ________
Charles: Yes, this is what I am getting at. In many different situations, bullies are bullies because they are trying to coverup their own feelings of lack. ________ Marta It seems to me that the similarity between acts committed by whites against blacks, men against women, nondisabled against disabled are linked with dominance - the person committing the act feels superior and justified in the act, not shamed by it. __________
Charles: I think of the dog-eat-dog aspect contributing to the bully psychology this way. In the generalized dog-eat-dog or rat race that capitalism creates, we are all judged on a "curve" , so to speak. In other words, my worth is measured by whether I am better than others. People who feel inadequate look bullyishly for people they can literally jump on to coverup their inadequacy and "prove" their "supremacy".
I don't think those men who killed that disabled Black man in Texas really have high self-esteem. Their problem is that they don't feel very superior and are trying to get a superior feeling.
Marta: I just have no idea how to end it. You know one reason I am a socialist is because I believe that if we had a system that provided people with what they needed and tied them to a sense of community where they had feelings of belonging as opposed to making them put down everyone else in an exaggerated competitive society like we have, we might get some where. I may be dreaming, but I prefer to think it may be possible.
Charles: I am with you in holding fast to that dream. What else are we going to do ? Give up ? I don't think so. And yes, a central goal , to me, of socialism is to abolish alienation and separation from each other that is caused by capitalism's generalized competitiveness or dog-eat-dog/rat race mentality.
Charles Brown
>
> >>> Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org> 02/19/99 11:20AM >>>
> Did anybody happen to see this article below? It was sandwiched deeply
> into the Business Section of the NYTimes-NYReport? It's similarities to
>
> the gay hate crime case in Wyoming and racial based one in Texas but I
> guess because these nondisabled kids did not kill this disabled young
> man that justified the not-so-important location of the news item.
> Disturbing further is the lack of attention paid in the article to the
> similarities to the other situations.
>
> Marta Russell
>
> 8 Charged with Tormenting Learning-disabled Man
> (NYTimes 2-17-99. C-23, "NYReport" Section)
>
> Eight men and women enticed a man with learning disabilities to a party
> and
> then tormented him for almost three hours, the Monmouth County
> Prosecutor
> said yesterday.
>
> "It as just cruelty," said John A. Kaye, the Prosecutor. The men and
> women were arrested Monday after a two-week investigation into the
> events that
> unfolded at a party on Jan. 30. Most of the suspects face charges of
> kidnapping or assault.
>
> My. Kaye said the victim, Eric Krochmaluk, 23, was persuaded to go to
> the
> party with a promise that there was a girl there who wanted to meet him.
>
> Once he entered the apartment in Keansburg, the group stripped him to
> his
> underwear and slapped and kicked him until they taped him into a plastic
>
> garden chair, Mr. Kaye said. Mr. Krochmaluk's head was shaved and he
> was whipped with a knotted rope before he was driven to a wooded area
> where he
> was further beaten, Mr. Kaye said.
>
> An hour later Mr. Krochmaluk staggered to a guard booth at a nearby
> commercial property. He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated
> and
> released, Mr. Kaye said.