This is Us

Inconclusive Thoughts on Why We Kill Each Other

“(Dylann Roof) stated clearly that his situation is like a Palestinian in an Israeli jail after killing nine people. He said the Palestinian would not be upset or have any regret because he would have successfully done what he tried to do.”

-Psychiatrist’s report on Dylann Roof

A few years back, a woman I knew in college murdered her husband. She and I weren’t close, but we had many friends in common and sometimes I ate at the same table with her in the walnut-paneled refectory of our very respectable private liberal arts institution.

I remember learning the details of the crime: she didn’t just kill her husband, she strangled him—an act that requires much greater resolve than simply pulling a trigger. I thought to myself, “Wow, I know a murderer,” which was weird because the killers I’d seen in the news always looked like people I would never meet. But here was a person with whom I had actually shared lunch. What would make someone like her—by extension, like me—end a life, and gruesomely so?

I’ve been thinking about this question for the past ten days. Watching the news about the atrocities in Israel, I’ve heard the Hamas terrorists referred to as “animals,” “monsters,” and “inhuman,” and I have found myself nodding along in agreement, unconsciously reassuring myself that they are another species altogether. But here’s the thing: they too are human—very human. They are us at our absolute worst.

We live on an ethical spectrum. At one end is the gentle person who loves not just his family but his neighbor, even his enemy. Somewhere down the line is a stylish, bi-polar wife with a tourniquet, followed by Dylann Roof in a Charleston church. Despite their different circumstances and motivations, each is human. It makes you wonder just what determines our place on that continuum.

Stacey and I recently watched a documentary called Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, based on a book by the same name by Christopher Browning. It tells the story of a squad of middle-aged German men who were too old for the infantry. Instead, these regular, working-class guys were assigned to a “police” squad that rounded up and killed tens of thousands of Jews, including women, children, and the elderly.

These were not political people. They were mechanics, bakers, and the like. Most didn’t seem to derive any joy out of their ghastly job and apparently numbed themselves with alcohol and other substances. But when their commander gave the 500-man unit a greenlight to step down, fewer than a dozen did so.

Ordinary Men is on Netflix

Why? Apparently, their motivations—or at least compliance—were based on “the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority…and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions.” So in addition to mental illness, rage, murderous racism, religious fanaticism, and desperation as catalysts to murder, we have peer pressure. That’s right, the alliterative force that drives teenagers to pick up a Parliament or a Pabst also drives grown men to slaughter their fellow persons. What delightful mammals we are!

Understanding the motivations behind heinous acts does nothing to justify them, but there’s much to be learned by looking for explanations. While it’s tempting to write off Dylann Roof as “evil” or “insane” in the same way we call Hamas non-human, it’s chilling to learn of the things they have in common.

After Roof murdered nine black parishioners at Mother Emanuel, a psychiatrist interviewed him to evaluate his mental fitness to stand trial. According to the doctor’s report, Roof compared himself to a jihadist and “stated clearly that his situation is like a Palestinian in an Israeli jail after killing nine people. He (Roof) said the Palestinian would not be upset or have any regret because he would have successfully done what he tried to do.”

Eventually, Roof fired the lawyers who wanted him to enter an insanity plea because the killer feared being labeled mentally ill more than a death sentence. He wrote in his journal, “I want to state that I am morally opposed to psychology,” …  which he went on to describe as “a Jewish invention.”

Feel free to re-read those last two paragraphs because they are both non-obvious and true. As a white supremacist, Roof no doubt considers himself superior to Palestinian Arabs. Ironically, he would find plenty of fellow travelers in Hamas.

Humans have been committing murder since Cain killed Abel and it’s unlikely we’ll ever stop. If we can come to understand the root causes, perhaps we’ll do it less. But I’m not holding my breath.

THE END (but keep reading below…)

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On this week’s Crazy Money podcast, I discuss the situation in Israel with Cal Fussman. Over the past 30 years, Cal has interviewed a breathtaking array of the world’s most fascinating people, including Nelson Mandela, Clint Eastwood, Barbara Walters, Richard Branson, Muhammed Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, Neil Young, Serena Williams, Tim Ferriss, Kobe Bryant, Al Pacino, Pelé, and hundreds more.

Writer-at-large at Esquire for almost 20 years, Cal also wrote for ESPN and GQ, and co-authored Larry King’s memoir. He won a James Beard Award for a story about his journey to become a sommelier and spent some time in the boxing ring with world boxing champion Julio Cesar Chavez when Julio was 87-0 with 75 knockouts.

As in the above essay, Cal and I don’t have answers…we’re just thinking it through out loud to try to make some sense out of everything. We do not succeed, but there’s a chance it’ll help you think it through also. Check it out.