Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Commentary runs amok

Further to a post by Ken Lovell at Road to Surfdom, it’s worth considering where the various examples of suicide and sacrifice — the GI selflessly throwing himself on a grenade, high-school rampagers, suicide bombers — fit in the continuum of suicidal/homicidal behaviour.

Perhaps I am subject to ‘cognitive dissonance’, but I can’t help leaning to the view that the malevolent ‘lashing out’ aspect of suicide-bombers’ motivation is more akin to high-school gun rampagers.

Or, for a more elemental form of the phenomenon, consider the pengamok:

Amok, or mata galap

Origin: Malaysia

The phrase “running amok” comes from this syndrome. The victim, known as a pengamok, suddenly withdraws from family and friends, then bursts into a murderous rage, attacking the people around him with whatever weapon is available. He does not stop until he is overpowered or killed; if the former, he falls into a sleep or stupor, often awakening with no knowledge of his violent acts. The pengamok is almost always a man between the ages of 20 and 45; there is only one female pengamok on record.

There’s not much material on the pengamok phenomenon that I’ve been able to find on the web; however, some may recall reading the following in a newspaper article in 1996, in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre:

In 19th-century Malaya young men ran amok, butchering strangers with a sword, usually after suffering a massive blow to their self-esteem or prestige. At the turn of the century the British colonial government passed legislation ordering that the men (called pengamoks) not be killed but put in insane asylums.

That decision caused a dramatic decrease in the number of pengamoks, says Paul Mullen, a forensic psychiatrist at Monash University. Instead of finding glory in death, the man was humiliated by incarceration, and the popularity of the practice is said to have dwindled.

Despite great cultural differences, what the pengamoks and modern mass killers have in common is a desire to discharge some colossal grievance, and belief in a heroic death. …

  • James Button, “Mass Destruction”
    The Age, 30 April 1996
    (No link available)

Note the words “the popularity of the practice is said to have dwindled”. I don’t know whether it was intended, but the implication seems to be that the pengamok-style of rampage was in some sense a cultural ‘norm’, by virtue of which the behaviour at some level received validation.

How all this informs our view of jihadist suicide-bombers may or may not become clearer.

As a footnote, however, I recall that the Antonio Banderas vehicle Desperado was released on video around the time Martin Bryant went amok at Port Arthur. I regarded with alarm the tag-line on the promotional posters:

He came back to settle the score with someone.
Anyone.
EVERYONE.

I never saw the film, but a user comment at the IMDB page for the film kind of confirms my impression:

Allow me to summarise the plot. A drifter (played by the impeccably sculptured [sic] Antonio Banderas) arrives in town in search of his girlfriend’s murderer and kills everyone he meets. Roll credits.

Interestingly, that commenter concludes that “in the end you leave the theatre feeling satisfied without really knowing why.”

Like I said, I never saw the film, but if anyone did, I’d be interested to know whether the Banderas character went out in a blaze of glory, like a good pengamok should.

Like the pengamok that’s latent in all of us???

25 Comments:

Blogger Caz said...

Banderas lived! Of course.

I really struggle to understand how anyone - most especially the "experts" - can fail to understand culturally sanctioned norms.

This is not quantum physics folks!

In Japan, suicide is a perfectly socially acceptable face-saving option. Indeed, the preferred one, if things are really sticky.

How difficult is it to understand that the learned cultural norm of suicide, incorporating mass murder, can be embedded in the psyche? It's NORMAL for those who have been raised with, or who have sought out, such a belief. It is not foreign, strange, insane, or anything else – it just is.

This is no different to any inculcation. All religions do this – all of them.

Some parents do this, in the worst possible way, often unwittingly.

School teachers do it.

We are the culmination of our exposures to particular inculcations, whether it is engendered by a religion, or by a culture, or a parent, or our peers.

Naturally some inculcating is more forceful and lasting than others. How far does one have to look for examples?

18/1/07 9:52 PM  
Blogger Caz said...

Aaaarrrhhhhhh!

Oh gawd, I have now had a glance at the Road to Surfdom post.

I may never forgive you for making me look.

Aaaarrrhhhhhh!

I can't agree with anything he is saying. He has it so, so, so wrong.

"namely laying down their lives in the belief that it will help others

That is NOT why terrorists kill!

How ignorant is that guy????!!!!

"I suspect that suicidal acts of terrorism strike fear into English-speaking people because they suggest that terrorists are motivated by a depth of belief in ideas and ideals that far exceeds our own.

Of for fuck's sake, spare me!

Yeh, right, terrorists are so idealistic, let's romanticize them.

Quick, quick, light the soft pink candles, bring out the pretty cushions.

Barbarism is not "advanced".

His ignorance is repugnant. Truly, how dare he right anything from a base of no knowledge of history or the "ideals" he wishes to tout as being enviable.

I'm so ANGRY.

Grrrrrrrrr.

Sorry, don't have time to address all of this in any articulate or logical manner.

18/1/07 10:02 PM  
Blogger Caz said...

Since when have hubris and revenge-to-the-death been "ideals" of which we, who don't suffer it, should envy?

At the risk of repeating myself:

Aaaarrrhhhhhh!

Seriously, has this guy read ANYTHING about terrorists, or the history of the middle east, and the US?

I'd like to see some quotes about how suicide bombers just want to "help people" too. Vebatim quotes!

18/1/07 10:09 PM  
Blogger Jacob A. Stam said...

One day you'll find it in your heart to forgive me, Caz. One day.

I certainly understand what you're saying about Ken's RTS post. You really should've commented over there, though - you know hardly anyone reads this blog. Actually the first commenter on that post made a very articulate refutation of Ken, couldn't have said it better. And he was SO BLOODY POLITE!

I'm surprised Ken got away with that post without a complete blitz from the blair brigade. I guess blair had bigger fish to fry, 'specially that hapless hack Terry Lane.

Sure KL stressed that he didn't empathise with suicide bombers, but the whole line of argument seemed to be pushing the dreaded 'moral equivalence' threshold. I'm sure Ken would argue that it wasn't what he intended, but I think he failed to navigate the fine line. (I guess I should post that on the thread, but I can't be stuffed now.)

Okay, once more again with feeling: Aaaarrrhhhhhh!

19/1/07 11:41 PM  
Blogger Caz said...

Fine line?

Nah, I don't believe it's a fine line. That's the neat excuse trotted out by the moral equivalance brigade.

I would only have commented over there if I had the time to shred his post to pieces, line by line.

That's one reason I get so angry with appalling guff like that: I rarely have the time to put into composing the arguments that are sitting in my head ... it doesn't take long to think of ten things, but it does take long to type it all up into a neat response, without being abusive.

20/1/07 5:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, then by the time one has typed out one thought, one has forgotten 4 or so of the remaining 9.

Unfortunately the process of brainstorming, outlining, roughing, drafting, etc., one's comments tends to diminish the coversational aspect of commenting on blogs.

And SHIT!!!! this New Blogger caper is a massive pain in the arse.

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