Community Chat

[velveteenb]

hihi --

i am literally choked up. have already cried; not sure if i'm also going to be sick. i have a friend who rescues animals. she shares many facebook posts about cats and dogs who need homes. sometimes she'll post a story with a happy ending. and then there are the others.

have you heard about Corona, the miracle dog? i don't know her whole story, but right now she is in a shelter (maybe animal hospital?). someone took a gun and shot it down her throat. Corona is a beautiful dog; you can see a video about her on youtube. she is truly gentle and loving ... wagging her tail when she's petted.

so my question is: how do you define human? is it possible to be so filled with hatred that one goes beyond the limits of humanity? or to be such a sociopath that they're not even motivated by hatred; they just don't care, can't conceive that what they're doing is wrong and worse than hurtful or cruel? can evil and humanity co-exist within the same being?

i don't know, i really don't.

i'm not a violent person. i don't generally seek retribution. i have never believed in "an eye for an eye" or the death penalty. and yet. to watch this poor, beautiful, innocent dog who now lives in pain and filled with shrapnel, makes me question some of my beliefs. i don't know what i would do if i were given a loaded gun and time with whoever did this.

or, more accurately, i don't know what i'd want to do. i know i could not retaliate in kind. but golly, right now, i wish someone would so that the shooter could experience what s/he inflicted on an innocent creature. although now that i've typed it and read it over, i am horrified. i do not wish this fate on anyone or anything. just can't do it no matter how much it may be "deserved" as i believe it would compromise my own humanity.

so then, i'm left with the original question and some new ones. if someone commits an act that causes others to question the actor's humanity ... can that person be rehabilitated? or is *re*habilitation even the goal here -- can one be born evil or without the capacity for empathy? and if so, what then? what is to be done with such a being? is it possible to make a sociopath feel? can evil be turned to good? i surely don't know and i'm not sure how to find out.

what are your thoughts?

bunny. the dangerously complicated rabbit.

nb: despite my less than graceful syntax above, i do know that sociopathy does not equal evil. my apologies for any confusion.