What the papers won't say
Isn't it amazing what things the media grab onto for explaining the unknowable states of mind of those who commit despicable crimes? Of course, anything that is different from the mainstream is generally pounced upon as a probable reason. Despite the vast majority of these criminals (and their victims) being Christian, you only hear speculation of a religious motivation if they are members of a small minority group of Christianity. You don't see "classmates of the perpetrator revealed that he was becoming more and more obsessed with being a Southern Baptist and regularly described himself as 'born again.'"
That which is defined as "good" by the majority is rarely seen as any type of issue, and even, as in the Andrea Yates case, where she claims the Christian God told her to cleanse her children through murdering them, this is dismissed (as it should be) as the blatherings of a deranged mind. No one actually thinks that it could, for a moment, be true. No one attempts to keep their children from the cult of Christianity, in fear that they too might be whispered to by this evil God or called to commit unspeakable acts in his name.
So, why do otherwise rational people believe that mere exposure to "the occult" or to "witchcraft" can become a valid newsworthy point in describing other acts of deranged minds? Perhaps it's a need to feel "it won't happen to ME because I would never be THAT." Perhaps it's fear of the unknown, or fear of finding their stereotyping behavior may be incorrect. For whatever reason, it is so common as to be almost ingrained behavior by the news media to report anything out of the ordinary, and by the reader to sagely nod and say "oh yes, that's why they committed unthinkable crimes" as if any singular reason can drive a human to do those things.
Our desire for simple answers - perhaps that's why we continue electing such shallow politicians.
United States: A love of Classical music led to a 16-year old girl brutally slaughtering her mother in a ritualistic killing, the Prattle can reveal. Neighbours thought Esmie Tseng was a kid any parent would be proud of
, but her involvement in the "Classie" scene was slowly turning her from a talented honour student into a vicious murderer.
...she stabbed her mother to death with a knife in an incident that apparently took the mother and daughter through several rooms of their home.
The murder happened after Tseng's mother threatened to sell her piano, an instrument popular among Classies. Police are investigating whether Classical music's frequent use of occult and violent imagery, influenced Tseng. Such music has provoked violence in the past, such as the riot at the premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, a glorification of sexual pagan ritual.
Like many teenage Classies, Tseng kept an online journal in which she detailed her increasing hatred of her parents, along with her obsession with classical music. After the murder, neighbour Jacob Horwitz read through her site and was shocked at what he found there:
My God,Jacob Horwitz remembers thinking when he read her weblog,it's a shame that another parent didn't see this yesterday.
Of course, this tragic story wasn't covered in this mendacious manner, and reading the full details, it will become obvious that there is a lot more to it than has been written here. Had Tseng been a goth, or into rap music, the press coverage would have been somewhat different.
Killer daughter case ignites US debate—BBC News, 3rd May 2006.