For all the detectives out there When the trigger was pulled everything fell apart. Once the bullet was released the bloody end was inevitable. Up till that moment there had seemed to be an escape route, and in fact the murderer was most reluctant to even commit the deed. But after that instant there was no longer time to duck; the trigger was squeezed just that little bit harder and it was over. It's a perfect puzzle for the forensic detective. On the surface an open and shut case; the motive, means, and opportunity were obvious to all. The chief suspect pulled the trigger in front of eye witnesses - his guilt was undeniable. Yet something was not right, why did the victim not escape when he could? Was the murderer really the murderer, or was he merely a puppet? What about the bystanders, were they innocent? And the victim, was he culpable? An open and shut case by all accounts. Yet there was this trigger point - an instant that illuminates everything, reveals all that’s needed to solve the conundrum. Until then, humanly speaking, the bullet could have been avoided. But a single statement changed the outcome; it was the final straw that tipped the balance and nothing has been the same again. The trigger? A collective cry of the crowd, a voice of agreement that pushed things over the edge and put in motion a wonderfully tragic death. Like a cornered tiger the murderer was desperately trying to find an escape; he had let himself be boxed in and you could see a point coming when he would desperately lash out in attempt to survive. The only question was, who would get hurt? The crowd was baiting him like hunters mercilessly taunting a beast, or like children playing with a loaded gun they were blind to the danger of the moment. Then they cried "We have no king but Caesar.” In that one instant they forced Pilate to pull the trigger. With their voice they declared their allegiance to human pride and murdered the authority of life and death. They chose a doomed rebellion. The evidence for the prosecution: John 19:15-16 Pilate was not the murderer, he was the means. Caesar was not the motive, he was the excuse. The trial was not the opportunity, merely a perfect storm waiting for someone to add the final straw. One statement formalised a rejection of perfection in favour of failure. Who in their right mind would choose to keep authority over their failures rather than submit to something better? All of us apparently, because we do it day after day, as if our pride could have the power to put it all right. Life is a series of rolling hills punctuated with precipitous drops. Just as you're rambling along and think you can relax, you come over a crest and find yourself standing on the edge of a cliff. Then something pulls the trigger, the pin pricks your balloon. A perfect storm made from lots of tiny events explodes in your life. We fall off the cliff and it can't be undone. We never saw it coming, and afterwards wonder how we could have been so dumb. At the inquest the coroner concluded that death was inevitable. No one individual was to blame; rather it was the the fault of the collective rebellion by all individuals. Fortunately the victim somehow mysteriously unravelled the logical consequences of that collective cry, or at least he has made it possible for individuals to choose to live in an alternate reality of ascribed innocence. A reality so close to their present one that at first it seems almost impossible to tell them apart. Yet like a minor perturbation will grow in time until everything is changed, the paths of these two realities separate until one falls off the cliff as the other goes on for ever.
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Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
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