{"id":590,"date":"2017-04-12T17:31:04","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T22:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brycepublications.com\/RCB\/?p=590"},"modified":"2017-04-12T17:42:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T22:42:17","slug":"590","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brycepublications.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/12\/590\/","title":{"rendered":"The Anatomy of Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe anatomy of killing . . .\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tand the art of appearing civilized\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h3>\n
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P<\/strong>erception is illusion \u2013 or delusion \u2013 and, despite its ethereal quality, it provides us with the motivation to believe and act in ways that keep us moving forward in life.<\/p>\n

The importance of perception can be observed in the way that human beings assiduously attempt to forgive murder, or the killing of another human being, if you will, by carefully defining motives and ticking through a whole checklist of exemptive emotional and psychological states of being \u2013 invented mostly for events like this.\u00a0 After all, killing connotes the appearance of uncivilized. \u00a0Killing also happens to be very common among members of the human race.\u00a0 So, we need to make killing okay, sometimes, or, at least kind of okay.\u00a0 Appearing to ourselves to be civilized is very important to us. Finding a way to excuse the various kinds of killing becomes imperative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So there are crimes of passion<\/em> where the jilted lover is seen as having temporarily lost their mind and, in a fit of rage, takes the life of their unfaithful partner.\u00a0 A civilized human being is in full charge of their faculties.\u00a0 Only someone who has lost their mind, and thus the ability to remain civilized, would be capable of killing.<\/p>\n

And then there is manslaughter<\/em>, where one human becomes reckless resulting in the killing of another because of anything from a moment of indiscretion, to temporarily insane behavior blamed on drug or alcohol consumption.\u00a0 Again, the killer human is not civilized anymore because he or she was made temporarily insane in some form.<\/p>\n

Premeditated murder<\/em> is defined as, perhaps, the most outwardly heinous version of killing, and provides an excuse not to forgive. After all, the killer was in full charge of his or her faculties. There are the elements of knowing, planning, plotting and stalking.\u00a0 The killer becomes the predator, the victim, the hunted \u2013 the prey, if you will.\u00a0 Highly uncivilized behavior only found among lower animals.\u00a0 So, in order to satisfy our craving to appear civilized, we condemn the killer to permanent banishment or death.\u00a0 After all, only the civilized get to remain at large.<\/p>\n

But then, trying to defend the appearance of civilized gets more complicated.\u00a0 There are types of killing \u2013 the taking of another human life \u2013 the reconciling of which requires more sophisticated illusionary skills.<\/p>\n

Terroristic killing<\/em>, with sub-categories like active shooter and suicide bomber, where hundreds may lose their lives simultaneously, dying for some imaginary cause that exists only in the mind of the murderer.\u00a0 One might say that the killer, or killers, are almost always in some kind of trance and might fit the definition of temporarily insane if it weren't for the often lengthy premeditation. To confuse things further, terroristic murderers are forgiven by sympathizers who make them appear not only civilized, but supremely so.<\/p>\n

In a twisted irony, the victims of an iatrogenic killing<\/em> unswervingly place their full trust in their perpetrators.\u00a0 In this scenario, the ones doing the killing are always regarded as the very epitome of civilized behavior: \u00a0medical professionals with academic degrees and impressive power over life and death.\u00a0 In this latter glow, it's easy to represent oneself as the trustworthy source of remediation \u2013 the only competent source of relief from disease and trauma. Can there be any reason to believe that doctors would not make good on these promises, and their unwavering assurance of competence?\u00a0 After all, our entire system supports their activity: \u00a0insurance companies, the legal system, and the esteemed universities that graduate them.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, doctors, hospital administrators, medical researchers, and CEOs of big pharmaceutical companies are themselves the template for civilized. They are the torch bearers, the avatars, and standards bearers of civilized behavior that we all aspire to.\u00a0 They live in big houses, in nice neighborhoods, join clubs and give to charities.\u00a0 Their kids go to good schools and they treat their help well.<\/p>\n

Killings of various definitions, up until now, have the word heinous<\/em> embedded in them. \u00a0For some reason, iatrogenic killings are not considered heinous at all, despite the deceit intrinsic to misrepresentation and the broken promise of competence.\u00a0 In fact, after the victim has been killed in this way, the perpetrators are rewarded.\u00a0 They are paid their full due, and then allowed to turn on one heal and proceed to the next trusting patient \u2013 as if nothing of any real consequence had just happened. It doesn't matter that the victim would have otherwise lived had he or she not trusted.\u00a0 The killers here are seen as so civilized as to be above recrimination \u2013 the very thought of the words doctor<\/em> and criminal<\/em> in the same sentence is uncomfortable to us.\u00a0 Iatrogenic murders occur at the rate of hundreds of thousands per year. This, in fact, would be the third leading cause of death in America.\u00a0 Non-lethal iatrogenic injuries may number in the millions.\u00a0 All at the hands of the beacons of civilization.<\/p>\n

The culturally filtered perception of passing away <\/em>due to illness, old age, or disease obscures the notion of killing as an act of passive euthanasia. \u00a0\u00a0Passive euthanasia is, after all, the killing of a human being by deliberate neglect. There can be any number of iterations of this phenomenon.\u00a0 Sometimes, this is done in the medical industry as a way of concealing incompetence. Other times, it is done at the request of loved ones, because the seriously infirm has created an overwhelming emotional and financial burden and the prospect for recovery seems dim \u2013 at least, according to the medicine that is presiding over the patient. \u00a0Interestingly, this 'burden' might be felt by doctors too, who have sometimes, through wrong decisions and ignorance, created an impossible situation that leaves no path back to wellness. \u00a0The only solution remaining, of course, is that the patient 'passes quietly into the night,' with a little help, of course.<\/p>\n

Passive euthanasia is rarely, if ever, defined as heinous, despite the intentions of those in control.\u00a0 In fact, magically, passive euthanasia does not exist in the world of hospitals and doctor's offices. Passive euthanasia, by its very nature, is perceived as a blameless act.\u00a0 And would we, after all, want to blame those at the highest levels of civilization for killing in this way?<\/p>\n

Iatrogenic murder\u00a0 and passive euthanasia have, in fact, managed to transcend completely the argument that killing is uncivilized.\u00a0 After all, these are the results of attempts to repair humans who are suffering, one might say, and the 'doctors did their best.' That those in charge were fully responsible for the suffering and the death of the victim, in the very first place,\u00a0 becomes muted, and in this silence we are wondrously civilized<\/em> once again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perception is illusion \u2013 or delusion \u2013 and, despite its ethereal quality, it provides us with the motivation to believe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Anatomy of Killing - R. Cameron Bryce<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/brycepublications.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/12\/590\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Anatomy of Killing - R. 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