Times - Are They A Changin'?

Most people these days have a severe case of "big mean world" syndrome - because of what they see on TV and read in the newspapers, they firmly believe that the planet is a cruel, miserable place of horror and macabre. To a point, who can blame them? It does surround us - it permeates through most of the messages we are bombarded with on a daily basis.

The discussion I want to start is - how recent is the development of this illness? Have things always been this bad, or have they only gotten that much worse in the last few decades? This book offers testimony to support the claims of the former case.

This relates back to my post concerning how relatable the characters are - the fact that Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon lived in Kansas in the 1950s does not disconnect the reader from them in any significant way. To this day, there are still neighborhoods where people feel safe enough to leave their doors unlocked at night. There are still communities that have the same intensity of trust in their neighbors as Holcomb did prior to November 15th, 1959. There are still psychos lying in wait, and there are still serial killers with multiple homicides under their belt looking for their next victim.

Dick and Perry are a dime a dozen - their motive is cheap: money. It's so common and unoriginal. Two embittered, uneducated low lifes who had given up on the society that had given up on them so long ago. Dare I call them cliché? They seem to be - considering that most criminal profiles include a variety of synonyms for the aforementioned character traits and personal qualities. It is always some version of the same sob story - a victim of circumstance and a perpetrator of unspeakable, terrible deeds.

I am wondering if anything has changed - or has it all just stayed the same, in different places with new peoples? It seems to be an ever-repeating cycle. No matter how many innocents are slaughtered in their own bedrooms and basements, people will still leave their doors unlocked. Is this optimism foolish? Considering my mother would have a heart attack any time she learned I had left the door unlocked after coming home from school, to me it seems so. I have never not locked a door behind me - it is second nature, not necessarily paranoia. But if asked to leave a door unlocked, I do admit a bit of anxiety of the unknown and unexpected, which means that the lock does offer me some comfort.

Some argue that as technology gets better and forensics more accurate, crime rates will drop because all of the "bad guys" will be caught. Is it possible we're nurturing sociopaths? There is strength in adversity, and I can bet with a large degree of confidence that I am not the only person in this class who has debated how to commit the perfect crime and get away with it - we've all watched enough CSI to know how to do that. Think about it - had it not been for that boot print, Dick and Perry may never have been convicted, even if it was found out that they were guilty. They left no witnesses alive - they left none of the shotgun shells behind - they left no prints or traces. Anything that remained of them was commonplace and indistinct, i.e. the chord used to bound the Clutter family. They were that close...