Violence That Follows

Shannon Trinh

ASA 2 - Section 01

Blog #5

Response to: Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence

It is not surprising that those who experience war and the brutal realities of it come out traumatized and unchanged. However, I never realized that such post-traumatic stress could create the ruthless killers in our society. A quote from the reading that stood out to me was: “If wartime killing does legitimate homicidal violence in some lasting or general way, as this model suggests, then one would expect increases in violent crime in postwar societies” (Archer and Gartner, 281). Yes, there are people who genuinely suffer from post wartime trauma effects. However, this is a scary thought, as anyone nowadays can justify their actions by some sort of loophole in the system, claiming severe cases of “mental illnesses”. With a compelling and persuasive story, it is easy to dismiss a murderer’s crimes and medicate them. By normalizing this cycle of crying mental illness, there is no doubt that others will begin to deem these kinds of crimes as acceptable. With these sorts of justifications, anything as far as mass or serial murder displays itself it to be commonplace, desensitizing, and ultimately, numbing.

Question: How do we as members of society respond to those who suffer from PTSD and other mental illnesses? Are there any accessible resources that these individuals have to prevent such violence after they return from wartime?