SocietyWatch
When horror stories turn real
Wearing penitentiary jumpsuits and shackles on their wrists and ankles, two 12-year-old girls appeared in a Wisconsin court on June 2 to face charges of first-degree intentional homicide after stabbing their 12-year-old friend 19 times in her torso, legs and arms.
The two, who were charged as adults, had mulled over their horrific attack since February. Initially, they planned to muffle their friend with duct tape and then stab her in the neck while she slept. They then considered killing her in a bathroom instead, to make cleaning up her blood easier. They eventually decided on attacking their oblivious friend in a park while playing hide-and-seek.
What turned these preteens into homicidal monsters? They desired to please a mythical demon-like character from a website devoted to horror stories and legends. The girls hoped to become proxies of the fictitious character and live with him in his mansion. One of them claimed she saw the character in her dreams and that he watched over her. She believed he was telepathic and capable of teleportation.
In June, it emerged that two other attacks may be linked to the same horror meme: a teenage daughter who stabbed her mother and a man who murdered two police officers and another person in Las Vegas.
In the May-June issue, the Trumpet wrote, “Interest in demons and the supernatural has gone mainstream. Is it harmless fun?” The plain truth is that preoccupation with demonism is spiritually, mentally and even physically destructive. The demon-like character that inspired these would-be child killers may not be real, but the spirit world behind it is very much so.
Britain’s crisis of masculinity
It’s not looking good for men in Britain. The push for the parity of the sexes has left males far behind their female counterparts in pretty much everything. According to the Spectator’s Isabel Hardman, boys lag behind girls in every one of Britain’s official early learning goals, including listening, concentration, understanding, reading, writing, technology, mobility and dexterity.
At age 7, boys are 7 percent less likely to meet reading standards than girls. That gap widens to 8 percent by age 11 and 12 percent by age 13. While 66 percent of girls pass high school with a C average or higher, only 56 percent of boys do, and more girls apply for college.
On the other side of the coin, 77 percent of suicides in Britain are men. Since 1981, the female suicide rate has decreased by 50 percent while that of males has decreased only 8 percent.
Studies have shown that eating disorders are rising faster among men than among women, and that men are less likely to seek help. In the workplace, on average, women in their 20s earn almost half a dollar less per day than their male colleagues. But this isn’t always the case in the public sector. Male workers at the University of Wales recently won an equal pay battle when they discovered that they earned $6,700 less than women.
“The idea of women having a rotten deal,” wrote Hardman, “has become so firmly entrenched in British public life that we have become blind to the problem emerging for the boys [and men].” She concluded that while there is a political debate to push for “‘women’s issues,’ there is a noticeable reluctance to do the same for men, or to worry about our sons” (May 3).
As we wrote in March 2013 (theTrumpet.com/go/10305), it is a documented fact that the male is shrinking from his role as brother, father, provider, protector and helper of society, particularly in Britain.
Since Sandy Hook …
According to cnn, since the December 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, there have been 15 similar school shootings in the U.S. as of mid-June. 2013 witnessed nine shootings; the first half of 2014 has already seen six incidents. This means that, statistically, since Sandy Hook a school shooting has occurred every five weeks.
Some politicians will use these statistics as evidence to push gun control laws. After an Oregon school shooting incident in June, President Obama said that it was time for America to do some “soul searching” over gun regulations.
The real soul searching America needs is over the true cause: a cultural revolution that has ravaged our family life. Virtually all youth violence can be traced back to a home life that foments rebellion against traditional standards, clean living, high morals and all authority. We focus on the weapons because we are unwilling to address the failings of our family breakdown. Tragedies like these will continue until that changes.
