Breeding Monsters

I WONDER how many of you remember the Russian historian, Anatoly Moskvin, who was discovered to have exhumed 150 corpses of little girls aged between 3 and 12 and clothed their decomposing bodies in dresses. He even mummified the corpses, giving them names and staging macabre birthday parties.

Stories like this always provoke a hostile reaction, which, given the nature of such revelations, is perfectly understandable. However, I am not reviving this gruesome tale in order for people to express their horror and disgust, but to discuss the perceived 'moral' implications.

Personally, I prefer take a decidedly amoral stance and reject the notions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ that are ordinarily associated with a fundamentally moral or religious framework. However, this does not mean that I lack the ability to see when something or someone is clearly at odds with the interests of society as a whole. In a more natural and organic community, people like Anatoly Moskvin would not exist. Indeed, it would be completely impossible to commit such murderous acts without being discovered. At one time, people lived among their extended families, but today, in our anonymous and atomised societies, we are breeding monsters.

‘Bad’ things will always happen in the world, such as when a volcano or earthquake results in appalling death and destruction, but something is clearly defective within the minds of many humans today and our artificial lifestyle - as well as poor genetics, of course - often leads to the most dysfunctional and irrational behaviour imaginable.